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THE 



INVOLUNTARY FORCES, 



THEIR 



USE AND ABUSES 



AND 



HOW TO CONTROL THEM. 



t. * * ' * 9 * 8 

(COPYRIGHTED 1900) 

^ BY 

William A. Miller. 



PUBLISHED BY 

W. A Miller and H. L. Miller, 

HANNIBAL, MO., U. S A. 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

APR. 13 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASSCUXXc: Hm. 
2.4 7 2-7 
copy a 






9: 







PREFACE. 

The author in referring to the practice of Medi- 
cine, Osteopathy, Magnetic-healing, Christian Sci- 
ence, etc., does not wish it understood that their 
practice is condemned, as each has been of great 
benefit in their day^ and were followed conscien- 
tiously by their adherents as the best method then 
known to them. 

In fact, he has been too closely allied to the 
three first mentioned, and recognizes their virtues, 
and understands their development in the advance- 
ment of science in their order as above enumerated. 

We denounce the use of many remedies used 
by physicians, which are in themselves far mor^ 
dangerous than the disease. 

We at the same time r lament the expenditure of 
so much research for the perfection of the science 
of medicine, in the face of the many acknowledge- 
ments for hundreds of years of the presence in man 
of the involuntary forces and the dependence placed 
upon them for the recovery of the patient. These 
may be found in all medical works, and even the 
physiologies used in our public schools give such 
abundance of evidence of its workings and what 
has been accomplished by the subjective mind ; also 



<) PREFACE. 

the benefits of reflex action, and the wonderful 
effect of the mind over the body. One tenth of the 
amount of research, or even the amount of brain 
expended to crush the ideas promulgated by Mes- 
mer, would have opened the new field and placed 
the science of healing upon a sound basis, with a 
complete knowledge of the cause of disease and 
a direct and harmless remedy. 

Had the attention" of science in the interest of 
inland traffic been confined to the now defunct 
canal, where would our nation stand in the com- 
mercial world ? Science in its true term means not 
only ■ M\e improvement of old discoveries, but the 
disr 3very of new fields. 

We shall briefly treat of the means employed 
and the ends accomplished by them in the different 
modes of administering to the afflicted, to show the 
real cause of the affliction and why the remedy had 
its effect. We also hope to make plain to any mind 
who will try to read understandingly how to avoid 
all our diseases, worries and afflictions, and how to 
overcome them or eradicate them. 

We will perhaps be pardoned for giving many 
personal experiences, when we say that what we 
experience is knowledge, while hearsay only instills 
belief and establishes nothing. 

The careful reader will find enough experiences 
of the writer that will call to his remembrance 
many experiences; that he too may have a knowl- 
edge of the truths herein set forth. We also refer 
to the Bible in many places to [trove the genuineness 



PREFACE. i 

of our proposition. To those who believe it the 
word of God. this will be sufficient. While there 
are those who do not believe it of divine origin, 
all nations and men recognize the Bible as the 
ablest book ever written. The elate of its manu- 
script and the close resemblance of its teachings 
to other books ascribed to deities, by other nations 
and religions, are sufficient evidence of a founda- 
tion or source which all sprang from, being based 
upon just such as we use in the following pages, and 
are evidence of an unerring law that was better 
understood in the primeval days. Finally, when 
we have benefited the human family in ^e way 
of health ; and helped lift the burden of worry from 
the mind, and have made bright the paths of the 
sojourner in this world; by preparing his vision 
that he can see the good things in life, while the 
bad will not appear; and have in the place of the 
wail of woe, wrong and impending catastrophy, im- 
planted a bright and beautiful vision in the fore- 
ground: the pathway supplied on either side with 
that which delights the eye, and enchants the ear: 
then there will be no incentive to look back (like 
Mrs. Lot at Soclam); then I shall feel that the joy 
of only one poor soul thus made happy, will be to 
me a tenfold compensation. 

Very truly yours, 

William A. Miller. 
November 29, 1900. 



GLOSSARY. 

The words Intellect, Objective Mind, Conscious 
Mind, Reasoning Mind, and Voluntary Mind, mean 
the same and refer to the mind we acquire by edu- 
cation, by contact, and through the five senses. 
This mind governs our action in the waking state, 
and conveys impressions as it sees them, to the 
subjective mind. The words Subjective mind, Sub- 
conscious mind, Conscience, the power that builds 
our bodies, the power that keeps them in perfect 
repair (when not interfered with nor controlled by 
our conscious mind), the Creative mind, the mind 
that entered our bodies as life, the Soul, are syn- 
onomous terms. We call this mind subconscious 
because we are not conscious of its presence much 
of the time, though every act bears evidence of its 
power. It is called subjective mind because it is 
subject to our objective mind in the waking state 
and may be made subject to the operator under 
hypnosis. This mind never reasons, but acts and 
knows. It never acts wrongly except when per- 
verted by the live senses (which are educative), and 
never allows the objective mind to act wrongly 
without first admonishing it (conscience). It is to 
us what the instinct is to the animal. 



10 GLOSSARY. 

The Voluntary muscles are the ones we make 
use of by thinking; as we raise the hand or foot, 
close the fingers, etc. 

The Involuntary muscles are the ones that keep 
up the heart action, cause us to breathe, and are in 
control of all our organs (when uninterrupted), and 
by use become reflex, or act as they have been 
accustomed. They are all important in every act 
sustaining life. Our muscles contract in labor and 
relax in rest; an equal contraction and relaxation 
insures health, while a prolonged condition of either 
is attended with bad results. Too rapid contrac- 
tion or too sudden is also disastrous. The Bible 
injunction, "Be temperate in all things." is the 
happy medium. 

SEEK THE GOOD IN EVERY 
THING. 

Seek the good iD every thing, 

Search with careful eye; 
Toss the husks to rooting swine, 

Pass the evil by; 

When your vigilance has found 

Ought of real worth 
Be content to have a share, 

Do not want the earth. 

— Gleanings. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 



A MAN MAY BELIEVE A LIE AND BE DAMNED 
FOR IT. 

Damn means to condemn. He believed his con- 
stitution strong and able to stand any thing, 
because he has clone what others could not stand. 
He overate, overslept, overworks, and over exerts, 
uses stimulants, medicines, and narcotics, to excess. 
The critical hour, though it has long been delayed, 
arrives. His digestive organs are gone, or his nerve 
is under control of the narcotic; his appetite for 
liquor is a fixed habit; he had believed his consti- 
tution invulnerable, and he rests under his own 
condemnation. It has become a fixed opinion that- 
the only part heredity plays in our bodies is a 
lack of vital force to start with; no power can 
provide a force greater than its own. Being weak 
when thrown upon our own resources, we succumb 
to our environments, or rather our powers being 
weak we husband them and lose all, instead of using 
them fearlessly that they may be doubled tenfold, 
or increased by exercising that power we have. 



12 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

OUR BODIES. 

We find by microscopic examination that our 
bodies are composed of cells ; some are very minute, 
requiring a powerful glass to see them ; others are 
so large as to be seen with the naked eye. They 
vary in shape and color, each having its particular 
use in forming our organs and building our bodies: 
living cells consisting of a jelly-like substance called 
protoplasm, the greater part of them are composed 
of two parts; the nucleus or smaller part of the 
cell is the center and is found in most cells, and 
those frequently divide in the middle and form two 
cells. The majority of the cells are short-lived, 
lasting in some instances but a few hours. 

By this we see our bodies are constantly and 
rapidly changing; each organ is constantly wasting 
and being rebuilt; every movement of the body, 
each activity of an organ, causes wear and waste, 
and must be replaced by new material. This is 
also true of our minds; every thought costs us 
material, and the more intense the thought the 
greater the wear or waste of organism. This shows 
grief, fear, anger, and kindred thoughts, more ex- 
pensive to our system. 

We are assured that a single drop of saliva, 
under a microscope, shows a vast number of cells 
from the mucus membrane of the mouth. The outer 
coating of the body is coated with cells, many layers 
deep, that are constantly being removed by the 
friction of the clothing, the bath and many other 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 13 

ways; and are being replaced by new ones formed 
under the surface. The bones and nails are com- 
posed of fine cells of very slow growth, and perhaps 
last the longest of any cells, while the cells com- 
posing some of the glands last but a few hours. 
The majority of cells are fixed in shape and position, 
yet there are many which change in shape and move 
through the system from place to place. These 
ameoboid cells are very much like the amoeba, the 
lowest form of animal life, which change their shape 
many times in one minute, move in any direction, 
take food, produce its own kind, and dies. 

Certain cells are prepared for each work and 
can do no other. The cells of the glands can take 
digested food from the blood and make glands of 
their kind; those of the muscle take the same kind 
of food from the blood and form muscle; those of 
the skin form our outer coating, and so on with 
each organ and all from one kind of food. 

This is the work of all the organism of this won- 
derful machine, that each organ has its own work 
to perform, which it does very rapidly; some, how- 
ever, for their own construction, while others, like 
the saliva! glands, can produce assistance for the 
other organs of digestion as well. We therefore see 
from our constant waste of material the necessity 
of avoiding any unnecessary wear, but to take nour- 
ishment at the proper time and under the pleasant- 
est circumstances. 

All organs under intense working strain are 
unable to take nourishment, no matter what we 



14 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

eat. If we are depressed, sorrowful, angry, or 
afraid, while the blood is offering the nourishment, 
or passing it rapidly to the organs, we find they 
have failed to utilize their share; and these organs 
have sustained a severe loss, from our intense 
state of mind, compelling action (or contraction) 
and are in need of repair during the continuation 
of this morbid condition. Any fears we may have 
of injury from any thing we are eating produces 
the condition we expect, in proportion to our fears: 
and in like manner gives good results, as we hope 
for repairs from what we take into the stomach, 
that is, in the line of nourishment. We have shown 
that each organ can take of the same food and 
appropriate to its own use (which, of course, is 
contingent upon the quantity of bodily nourishment 
the particular food contains), yet the fact remains 
that we must, to keep our bodies in tact, economize 
in wear, furnish them with material to build from, 
and not interfere with them during their busy 
season. 

Froni the variety of foods used and subsisted 
upon in the world, we must readily agree that the 
kind of food, if pure, is not so essential as the con- 
dition of those organs while eating and digesting it. 
The knowledge that these organs take any kind of 
pure food and build human minds and bodies is 
of great importance to us. If we, by any bad or 
depressing thoughts while eating, or any time, keep 
an organ from appropriating its share our bodies 
suffer loss. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 15 

PAIN. 

There is absolutely no pain without muscular 
tension or contraction. Muscular contraction is 
produced by fear or its kindred thoughts, that is, 
anxiety, doubt, impatience, hatred, malice, and the 
whole category of perplexities. On the other hand 
we have hope or desire, which brings to us all the 
pleasures we enjoy, all the benefits we derive in 
this life, and prepares the soul for a perfect life in 
eternity. "Hope is the anchor of the soul, both 
sure and steadfast, that enters within the veil" 
(Bible). The first, or injurious thoughts, are of the 
conscious mind, the mind that was beguiled into 
man, when he knew good and evil; became as gods 
(see Genesis 3 and 22). Fear first entered man 
here: "and I was afraid because I was naked" (Gen- 
esis 8 and 10). 

ENTIRE RELAXATION IS FATAL. 

A series of labor and rest is necessary in every 
thing. The heart labors while contracting and rests 
while expanding the muscles, and is the mightiest 
machine in the universe. 

One may so relax or rest as to waste away. Every 
thing in nature is alternately working and resting. 
Inanition is disastrous; repletion and inanition may 
both do harm — so says Burton's Anatomy of Melan- 
choly. Take for example the workings of the heart, 
which consists of alternate contraction and relaxa- 
tion of the muscles. Steel's Physiology, page 123, 
on the working of the heart, says: "If it should 



16 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

expend its entire force in lifting its own weight 
vertically it would rise twenty thousand feet an 
hour; one hundred thousand beats per day. forty 
millions per year, and often three billions without a 
stop." If we take the life of Methusaleh 1 920 years >. 
it seems it might without unnatural resistance con- 
tinue through everlasting. The greatest engine 
ever made could only accomplish one-eighth the 
amount of lifting power in proportion to its weight. 
The question may be asked why we were created 
without the incentive lo use and apply those powers 
for good. Take the average Christian, who believes, 
every word of the Bible, and is living here for eter- 
nity, and you could not tell from his actions more 
than one day in seven that he ever thought of 
trying to get to heaven. We are too much on 
theory and not enough on practice. Like the pro- 
fessor teaching a class in memory: he asked where 
a certain student lived, and added the man had 
gone off and forgotten to pay his tuition, "and worst 
of all," said the professor, 'T have forgotten his 
name.*' 

We often delude ourselves with the idea that 
we practice a thing because we believe or imagine 
we do. It would be a hard matter to get a jury 
that would find a verdict that we believed a thing 
which we never practiced, or that we desired a thing 
which we never strived to obtain. Every one de- 
sires health; few T there are that are not aware of 
the injury brought about by fear, worry, and kindred 
thoughts, and yet how few guard against this great 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 17 

enemy to health. Good thoughts, desires and hopes, 
and all pleasant memories, smooth the wrinkles on 
the troubled brow and build up the entire system — 
even make our thoughts clear. How? By relaxing 
our muscles and allowing the free course of nature. 

The writer has cured all kinds of rheumatism, 
and considers himself a good judge of human nature 
and has always been a close observer, and he finds 
the patient who accepts our word as true long 
enough to try a thing, or the person who does not 
look upon everybody as humbugs and liars, are 
the easiest cured. 

Often I have removed pain and soreness of 
months and even years standing in thirty minutes. 
They had simply left their own ideas long enough 
to relax, when all pain and soreness was gone, while 
the stiffness had only been the tense muscular con- 
traction and was gone. Frequently one of the 
above cases will relapse inside of a clay, nearly as 
bad as at first. This is due to a little fear while 
going down a step, or doing something which had 
caused pain before. The least fear will contract 
a muscle in some part. Again the return of pain 
or contraction may have been caused by reflex 
action, which is only a scientific name for habit. 

If it were not for reflex action, our constant 
time would be taken in standing erect, breathing, 
and various things; but we must first acquire the 
habit. I have stood on one side of a boiler fac- 
tory, unconscious that I was bracing myself: and 
when perhaps twenty men who had been sledging 



18 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

those steel drums, until one could scarcely stand, 
so great was the noise, on one side only. Then of 
a sudden all would stop, and I would fall in the 
direction the noise had come from — like a prop had 
been removed suddenly. The intense noise had 
caused a contraction on one side only, which re- 
laxed by the sudden change and left the body 
unsupported. 

When we note that anatomy, physiology, and 
the writings of all physicians, recognize what we 
have been content to refer to for thousands of 
years as the involuntary forces, and the physician 
has been taught he must depend on them for the 
restoration of his patient: that we have never 
attempted to utilize nor control them, we wonder 
if the science of healing disease, has been advanced. 
Only as by accident we catch glimpses of its work- 
ings, and use it by requiring the patient to observe 
perfect quiet, or advise a trip from home, a resit 
from business. All the above are, as we will show, 
relaxation or changing, getting away from our 
habits, to allow nature to rebuild the worn parts. 

The subjective mind, the creative mind, the 
involuntary force — this is the only creative power 
in life, as far as this world is concerned. The intel- 
lect, reasoning faculty, conscious mind, is the disin- 
tegrating, destroying power. A proper use of both 
is life, pleasure and happiness. We can only won- 
der why the chief source, yea. the only hope of the 
physician, has been entirely aeglected. All physi- 
cians are aw r are of the necessity of sleep in build- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 19 

ing up the weak and debilitated, and say we must 
let nature do her work. 

We doctors often say we must assist nature, 
and we deal out a poison to the stomach, for it is 
nothing else when it makes the stomach sick, 
kills the nerves for the time, and allows the un- 
digested food to pass off. We have, instead of 
assisting nature, drugged nature, and caused her 
to simply loose the material she had on hand. 
We admit this was better than that she should 
be broken clown by an over-burden, but we insist 
that to take ourselves out of nature's way would 
have been far better. Nature needs no assistance, 
all bhe requires is to be left alone. But one says 
if we oppose with our mind, is not our mind 
nature? We say positively, no ! Our intellect, or 
conscious mind, is artificial; it may believe the 
earth flat aud the sun revolving daily around us, it 
may believe bleeding the proper way to assist 
nature, it may believe cold water in measles certain 
death, and that the Creator made a mistake in 
placing the vermiform appendix in the human body. 

When Paul said, in speaking of gluttonous eat- 
ing and drinking, ''Know ye not that you are 
defiling the temple of the living. Godl" he certainly 
did not mean defiling the soul, but just what he 
said- — the temple or dwelling. Paul was a man, 
and spoke with the knowledge he had acquired. If 
he had been acting with divine power, instead of 
using human artifice as perfected at that time, in 
writing to the Phillippians, he would have used the 



20 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

long distance 'phone, or what would have been 
more expedient, the wireless telegraph. 

Undoubtedly our expanded intellect has been 
at variance with nature; hence, "every generation 
shall be weaker and wiser." 

We are told in Genesis 3 and 22, "And the Lord 
God said behold the man (Adam and Eve) is become 
as one of us, to know good and evil; and now lest 
he put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life and 
live forever] therefore the Lord God sent him forth 
from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from 
whence he was taken/' 

MAN'S EDUCATION HAS BEEN AGAINST 
HIS HEALTH. 

Man's efforts since the fall has been directed 
towards a livelihood, or. as it were, to beat a living: 
seeking constantly for the most productive soil, 
the most congenial climate, the greatest labor- 
saving devices, the avenues of trade that offered 
the best profit, and so on through all intellectual 
achievements. 

But how about the uncivilized, the unimproved 
intellect? 

We are all familiar with the well authenticated 
accounts of the Hindoo fakirs, the Chinese jug- 
gler, and the wonderful powers of mind or thought 
transference of the natives of India, their wonderful 
powers over the bites of venomous snakes and rep- 
tiles; and now the report comes to as that the 
natives of India are actually starving by thousands 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 21 

rather than use the flesh of animals which they 
must shed blood to acquire. The cattle are there 
by the million and are used as bearers of burdens 
or to draw a crooked stick through the ground to 
cultivate it, and are only worth fifty cents apiece. 

The minds of those people are not burdened with 
the worry of beating a living: their intellects are 
not in control, they take things as they find them; 
their subjective mind is used more than ours, and 
of course serves them better than ours; yet they 
have educated their superstitions and allow them- 
selves to die of starvation, while we kill ourselves 
by worry and taking something. Christ said, "Con- 
sider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither clo 
they spin."' yet Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these. We clo not understand 
from this we are not to toil; the edict has gone 
forth. "In the sweat of thy face thou shait eat 
bread." 

Christ, after speaking of the lilies, said: "Take 
no thought therefore what you shall eat nor what 
you shall drink," or as the revision has it. clo not 
be anxious about it. We who profess to work in 
the vineyard of the Lord too often make the mis- 
take of wanting things not only done in the man- 
ner we had fixed in our minds was best, but we 
want it clone instantly. The poet wrote. "Man 
wants but little here below,' 7 and he might have 
added, "but he wants it before anybody else has 
had it." The error made by ninety per cent, of the 
temperance workers, as well as Christians, is they 



22 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

want results the first day. We must remember 
that Paul may plant and Apolus may water, but 
God gives the increase. Of all the injunctions in 
the Bible none is more binding than the "Wait 
patiently on the Lord/' 

Jonah at Ninevah was mad nigh unto death 
because the Lord did not destiny the city, even after 
they had repented, the very thing his preaching 
was intended to bring about. Well, one says, what 
has this to do with this book ? We do not believe 
the Bible as divine. Admitting for the sake of argu- 
ment it is not, we all admit it a masterpiece; every 
character set forth reminds us of our own expe- 
rience or the doings of others around us. Take 
Gideon as an indicator of our faith under the best 
circumstances. Take Moses forty years in advance 
of the Lords time, trying to deliver the [srael 
Take the forty years' sojourn m the wilder 
never deserted by God foran hour neither night nor 
day, and as grumblers and calamity howlers they 
would disgrace the traditional Kansas populist, or 
a certain well known United State- Senator who 
has been predicting the downfall of our govern- 
ment every election for twenty-two years. Then 
we have the wet weather prophets, the drouth 
prophet, the chintz hug prophet, along with _ 
hoppers, potato bugs, gold hugs, trusts, imperialism. 
Catholicism, labor unions, over-production and low 
prices, short crops and high prices, nothing to sell, 
ruination by five silver, centralization by gold 
standard, labor ruined by cheap immigration, rail- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. Zd 

road employes laid off on account of no crops, 
nothing to haul, heavy crops and can't get hands 
to save it, nor cars to ship it, money too plenty 
and interest too low, money scarce and interest too 
high, and this is not a beginning of our worries. 
We worry from morning until night over things 
that will never happen, and if we can't find any 
thing at home to worry over, we help our neighbor 
worry. A man read that the sun was gradually 
cooling off, and in five million years this world 
would be too cold for life to exist, and he worried 
about it. It seems like super-irrigation to say that 
all those fears, envyings, and evil forebodings of 
each and every one of us are injurious to health. 

Physiology teaches the winking of an eye con- 
sumes physical power; and while we are destroy- 
ing health and tear down tissue, by unnecessary 
and unnatural thoughts, we are at the same time 
standing in the way of hope and desire the good 
thoughts that build up our bodies, produce every 
good feeling or thought, every pleasure we enjoy. 
Bad thoughts are like war, they not only destroy 
but impede production. Some one says that, is 
Christian science. Far from it. While Christian 
science teaches every thing is good, it is eternally 
finding evil. It spends great time trying to show 
that hypnotism is of the devil, when God hypnotized 
the first man on earth. (Cod caused a deep sleep to 
come over Adam and he took from him one of his 
ribs.) Earnestly, hypnotism is an inherent power 
and is always self-induced. No sane person who 



24 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

understands hypnotism will object to it; it is only 

those who are ignorant of its workings that fear 
it. Hypnotism is the only way known to man by 
which one person can produce perfect relaxation 
in another without injury, and thereby relieve 
pain. By it more perfect anaesthesia may be pro- 
duced while the surgeon operates, and the subject 
can be awakened at your pleasure, unimpaired in 
mind or health. 

Perfect relaxation is getting away from one's 
self, or the conscious mind, the artificial mind, the 
reasoning mind. It means stepping out and allow- 
ing nature, the involuntary forces, to rebuild our 
wornout parts, to strengthen the contracted mus- 
cles by rest and nourishment. The involuntary 
force is responsible for every ounce of our bodies: 
from infancy to old age. its best work is accom- 
plished when the intellect is asleep, but for perfect 
health the two minds should work syncroniously. 
One sect says all is spirit, another says all is mind, 
another all is physical. Xow, there is not a scien- 
tist today who will attempt to separate mind and 
body, nor tell where one begins or the other stops. 
But we do know that when our conscious mind is 
at rest or sleep, our physical body is not subject to 
wear, and that while the heart beats the subjective 
mind is at work, the tissues are being rebuilt, and 
there is always hope of life. 

A few questions here might assist us: After a 

thing has happened and is past being remedied, is 

" good sense fco worry over it ] If you can remedy 



THE INVOLUNTAKY FOECES. 25 

an evil, why not do it instead of worrying over it ? 
If you can't help what is going to happen, what's 
the good of worry ] Have you not noticed that you 
have worried about what never happened, ninety- 
nine times in one hundred? Do you not know that 
while worrying you do no good, and are destroying 
your usefulness for yourself and others and your 
body as well. 

Every worry, no matter how small, causes a 
contraction of some part of the physical system. 
This impedes growth and causes pain. The out- 
come is disease or lack of ease. Correspondingly 
the connective organs are contracted and diseased. 
which spreads one way and auother, as the sensory 
organs are connected, depending, by the way, upon 
the conscious mind's influence how far-reaching 
the disease is. 

This is why a weak, despondent nature is always 
a prey to disease of the nervous type: while tough, 
stout, wiry, high-strung and active persons who hold 
the muscles tight, positive in speech: in other 
words, tense in every way, rheumatism in all its 
forms is the result. The former from fear of every- 
thing, generally breaks by nervous strain; the latter 
by holding continuous strain on the muscles, ira- 
jDedes circulation, weakens the blood, and straining 
the involuntary muscles, by being tighter than the 
voluntary muscles, they are being almost torn out 
by the roots. This is pain. Relax those muscles by 
hypnotism, massage, by electricity, by medicine, by 
joy, pleasure, or sudden excitement, and the pain is 



•Jf> THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

gone. Keep them relaxed, or we might .say allow 
them to stay relaxed a short time, and the damage 
is repaired, soreness is all gone, the circulation of 
the blood has carried off all poison, built new tissues, 
and if the system has not been too greatly depleted, 
strength comes at once. Where the body has no 
adipose tissue in store, no material to build from 
the relaxation must be watched until, by breathing, 
eating, and drinking, we have deposited in our body 
the material used in building our bodies. The 
quantity of material on hand is what governs the 
time required to restore a certain ailment, no mat- 
ter of the intensity of the case nor the long stand- 
ing. While it is true strong bodies are more easily 
freed from disease, or build up sooner, we find the 
obstinate, self-willed who are so material that they 
must take something, as has been their habit, recover 
very slowly as they continually contract through 
obstinacy and hamper nature's control; while the 
weak, debilitated invalid, has lost all conscious 
energy, and when they find they are recovering, 
accept the remedy as good and do not try to help 
by adding remedies others may suggest, or some- 
thing to build them up. 

The strong body is the result of a free mind, and 
if not deluded by false theories, should be readily 
cured. 

KEFLEX ACTION OR HABIT. 

Everything we accomplish with our intelligence 
is the result of repetition. Our education in school 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 27 

must be repeated often to learn to distinguish the 
form of letters, then to associate form with the 
sound, next several letters to produce a word, and 
words to produce a sentence, until we can by 
repetition read whole lines readily without the con- 
sciousness of' the name or sound of a single letter. 
This is habit, reflex action, or acting without the 
use of the mind or thought. 

HOW DISEASES ARE CURED BY THE FOLLOW- 
ING METHODS. 

Magnetic healing (Weltmer and other meth- 
ods). After giving complete instructions how to 
use the hot hand at the different plexus; wring, 
rub. revulse, knead, agd twist, every affected muscle; 
we are told we must instruct the patient (at such 
times as in the mind of the operator is best suited) 
what we are doing or expect to accomplish; and 
that what we do must be clone with the intention; 
that is, we must do as though we were really accom- 
plishing the thing we told them. If congestion is 
present we must rub as though we were causing 
the blood to flow from those parts. For instance, 
in headache, say: "Now I will divert the circulation 
from your head," always using language that will 
be best understood by your patient. 

After all instructions, we are told we must pri- 
marily and ultimately depend upon the mind of 
the patient to effect the cure, as any thing w 7 e do 
is only the vehicle that places the suggestion on the 
subjective mind of the patient, which accepts it 



28 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

and relaxes the involuntary muscles, frees the circu- 
lation, and relieves the pain in that part of the 
body. Often the pain is transferred along the line 
of nerves leading from the first seat of pain, and 
by simply following up with the hand of the oper- 
ator, is driven onward and out at a hand or foot. 
the head, and even the tongue, as the operator may 
suggest. It will be observed, after the pain has 
been relieved in the first place, the mind of the 
patient is not acting on belief, but knowledge: and 
readily relaxes where the hand is placed. 

The writer often, in rheumatic or neuralgic pain, 
suggests to his patient. "Now I will send this pain 
to the shoulder, the elbow, or any convenient 
place," and invariably it goes to that place direct 
and is very severe, often bringing tears and cries. 

The patient, expecting what has been sugge* 
relaxes the muscles where the pain is and contracts 
where it is expected, and as a matter of course 
produces pain at the last place suggested. 

Many will say that is only imagination. The 
fact still remains, and while we are thus created 
we should accept the conditions as they are pre- 
sented. A relaxation in any part relieves pain in 
that part, while a relaxation in the entire body 
relieves all pain. This is the case in opiates. ;i- 
chloroform. 

SOME CAUSES OF CONTRACTION. 

The writer has known an engineer, who, from 
the tenseness of his nature, with the knowledge 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 29 

of his responsibility, holding the lives of hundreds 
of passengers in his hands; by grasping the throttle 
tight in his hand, while his eyes were on the track, 
his whole nature tense or strained: to bring on a 
bad case of what we call sciatic rheumatism. His 
case had baffled the skill of the physician and the 
electrician, until he was shown how to relax his 
muscles, when it soon disappeared. Another 
engineer, who had acquired the same disease by 
holding the throttle, found no relief until the 
muscles of the arm gave way under the strain, 
when he was left with great bunches of muscle or 
knots on his arms. What had happened in this 
case is the same as ails the stomach, after a long 
period of contraction, or gas on the stomach. After 
months or years of flatulency (gas on the stomach) 
has kept the muscles of that organ stretched con- 
stantly, they give way, as everything must, on 
constant strain. Inanition is the consequence; 
the stomach then is free from pain, the daily 
action of the bowels will probably be maintained, 
but the stomach has lost its muscular force or 
paristaltic action, the food passes out undigested, 
the lacteals find no material in the contents to build 
up the system, and in taking up the small amount 
they find they also take up some of the poisons 
from the spoiled food; enough, anywa}^, to over- 
burden the liver and kidneys, close the perspiratory 
glands, while the lungs (the only other organ of 
excretion) were weakened by the poison until they 
were a prey to the tubercular bacilli (consumption), 



30 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

which, like the buzzard, can only prey upon decay- 
ing flesh. 

I have seen a healthy miss of fourteen who never 
had felt rheumatism, begin work in a shoe factory 
by running an electric machine. In two weeks 
both hands were tightly swollen, shoulders, feet, and 
ankles, the same. Having everything to learn, she 
had held the muscles of her hands tight to keep her 
work in position and ready for every turn, while 
her feet were rigid on the treadle to check the 
power instantty, in case of necessity. When she 
was told by me the cause of her trouble and shown 
how to relax at work and avoid it, she soon recov- 
ered, without any other remedy. Upon enquiry I 
found several in the same factory who had been 
similarly afflicted at the start, but after the work 
had become automatic, as it were, they relaxed and 
r h e u m a ti s m d i s a p p eared. 

ALL INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES ARE AFFECTED 
BY FEAR. 

All our involuntary muscles are affected by fear. 
The heart's action is quickened by tear: as it must 
have equal contraction and relaxation: by intense 
fear or excitement, it dies. The engineer who, in 
running a curve in a cut, sees smoke come sud- 
denly over the embankment ahead of him, where 
the section men are burning trash, finds his heart 
bounding until he can distinctly hear each beat. 
Almost everyone has had similar feelings from a 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 31 

sudden scare, and even from suspense or expecta- 
tion, have noticed the same strong and rapid heart 
beat. But the heart contracts and relaxes equally, 
thereby giving equal labor and rest, while all the 
other involuntary muscles remain contracted until 
relaxed by one of the methods mentioned else- 
where. 

CAN THE MIND KILL THE BODY. 

We will take the case where thousands are view- 
ing a parade. On a veranda or the sidewalk, out 
of harm's way, all in good health and the best 
of spirits, when some terrible accident happens in 
the street. Several fall in a dead faint. The sud- 
den fear, even at the sight, contracted the vital 
organs so suddenly as to almost crush out life. 
Feebly the heart beats just enough to show life, 
not enough to show a pulse. What is clone? The 
clothing is removed where it is tight, fresh air sup- 
plied, smelling salts or aromatics applied to the 
nostrils; these are the most rapid ways of reaching 
the muscles through the five senses. If none of 
those things are at hand, cold water is applied, and 
is equally efficient, as it acts upon the sensory 
nerves, and the patient is restored by equalizing 
expansion and contraction. Take the pen paralytic: 
he will tell you it was caused by holding the pen. 
Many cases of rheumatism have come under the 
notice of the writer that were caused by holding 
the pen too tight or some cramped position while 
writing. 



O'J THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

TOOTHACHE. 

A sudden exposure to cold where there is defect- 
ive teeth, cause a contraction of the muscles near 
where the cold air was felt, and often the fear of 
cold causes it. The circulation is impeded, the heart 
continues to pump the blood against the impedi- 
ment, swelling is caused, and great pain the result: 
and yet there is nothing there but a condition. 
Well, the tooth aches constantly for days, and we 
conclude to have it extracted. We drive ten miles, 
as my friend did, to the dentist; but as we get sight 
of the dentist, it suddenly stops aching. Other 
thoughts took our attention from ourselves and 
the muscles relaxed: or the truth, our mind (con- 
scious mind) had gotten away from ourselves and 
the muscles all relaxed, just as they were intended 
to do by the Creator. 

I w 7 as once called upon by a lady, who wished 
to be examined and treated. The lady had been 
operated upon three years before, for what the 
doctor told her was a cancerous tumor. All went 
well until a small lump appeared at an entirely 
different place from where the tumor had been. 
The lump was small, and one that would not 
ordinarily have been noticed. She had been told. 
however, when the operation was performed that 
she was all right, provided there were no roots of 
the cancer in her system. If they were yet in her 
system, they would break out anew in some place 
and kill her, as the roots permeated the whole 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 33 

system. This was evidently a dangerous as well 
as a useless suggestion. Before being told the fore- 
going. I had examined the lady carefully. She had 
severe pains in the stomach, side, chest, and neck; 
the lump was small and she said very sore. I told 
her that she had no tumor, that her pain was the 
result of contraction brought on by worry, fear, 
or probably exposure. 

She then told me the following: Three weeks 
before this she had been told by a lady that a 
friend of hers who had an operation performed for 
a cancer, was as bad as ever three years after, 
the cancer breaking out anew, and finally killed 
her. 

Soon after this the lady discovered this lump and 
it seemed a little tender. She went at once to 
the doctor who had performed the operation before. 
He told her that it was actually the old tumor 
breaking out in a new place, and that the roots of 
it permeated the whole body; that it was in a very 
dangerous place to operate, there being only one 
chance in a hundred that she would not bleed to 
death. "But," said he, "you had better let me cut 
it out. as it will soon kill you, anyway/' In other 
words, the suggestion was : you will soon die if 
you don't let me kill you. She then told me that 
she had gone home in a highly nervous state, had 
eaten nothing for seven days, had cried most of 
the time, and as she could not sleep had sat most 
of the time at night in the window in her night 
dress. 



34 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

Her intense fear and worry had contracted 
every nerve, and the poisonous night air only em- 
phasized the contraction, until there was no won- 
der she had pain. I gave her magnetic treatment 
for relaxation; and strong suggestions that there 
was no tumor, and soon relieved her pains, and the 
soreness also left the lump; the lump soon disap- 
peared and the lady went about her duties as 
before. Oh! the aches and pains produced by our 
fears, and the amount of suffering which is caused 
by them we shall never know. We hope to see the 
d-dy when such suggestions by physicians shall be 
termed a misdemeanor and be punished in propor- 
tion to the suffering they have caused. 

I have removed the worst thyroid tumors I have 
ever seen, of many years standing, that had been 
doped by external and internal treatment, with 
iodine, lymph and thyroid tablets, and . electric 
needles, for years, and had flourished better than 
the lady herself. I used no medicine, no kuife. nor 
needles. Some were very hard and large, and took 
weeks to remove them,- while others not so hard 
went away readily. All was done by magnetic 
healing or suggestion : the system absorbing them. 
I have removed dozens of soft goiters, some of 
which had begun to give pain and impede breathing, 
in from one to three weeks. And this in face of 
the fact that we must depend upon the mind of the 
patient for the cure. If anybody thinks that a goitre 
is only an imagination, then they can take the 
floor; if, on the other hand, they are real and can 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. %0 

be removed by the imagination, then give me the 
imagination and keep your medicine and knife, as 
they are both unpleasant and decidedly dangerous 
in most men's hands. 

HOW IT IS DONE BY OSTEOPATHY. 

The osteopath, as a general thing, is a good anat- 
omist. When he has located a disease, he usually 
proceeds by telling you that you have a dislocation, 
a broken rib, or a muscle impinged, or held down, a 
lesion ; and proceeds by transverse pressure motion? 
longitudinal pressure motion, circuitous pressur 
motion, ringer and thumb grasping motion, by 
wringing, by twisting, by rotating the limbs, by re- 
vulsing the muscles, twisting the joints, and various 
other motions, at the same time telling the patient 
what he is going to accomplish. One and all under 
the careful operator, will relax the muscles in any 
part applied ; in fact, the suggestion itself if given 
at the proper time and in the right manner will 
relax them. 

When this has been accomplished, your body is 
free to be built up by the same power that built it 
in the first place, that has kept it in repair, and 
that does its best work when the conscious mind is 
en rapport with it, or when your conscious mind is 
asleep. 

This same power or mind causes our breathing, 
the action of the heart, the digestion, the purifying 
of the blood ; and every action, whether physical or 
mental, is under its supervision. Being the only 



36 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

creative power on earth, it repairs our bodies and 
minds, and is in full power when our gigantic intel- 
lects are asleep, for we may reason wrongly and 
tear down our bodies and wear out the reason. 

The subjective mind that was breathed into man 
when he became a living soul never tires, never 
wears out, is the same in the infant as the man at 
fifty or one hundred years old : and when this body 
that was formed from the dust of the ground is 
untenable for the soul, it returns to God who gave 
it. In the day thou eatest thereof (allowed our 
knowledge to run our bodies against the power 
placed in us to run them) thou shalt surely die. 

EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS INCREASED BY 
PROPER USE. 

Everything in life is either increasing or de- 
creasing. 

Like the scriptural parable of the talents, a 
proper use of our talents creates more : a neglect to 
use them, or hiding them in a napkin, takes from us 
that which we had. We acquire more of any gift 
by using it; by non-use we lose what we had. 

The more we practice an art or calling the 
more proficient we become, the more we love the 
more love we have, the more we trust our memory 
the stronger it becomes, the more we use our phys- 
ical bodies the stronger they are. the more we 
depend upon stimulants the more we require, 
whether of physics or other so-called medical help, 
enemas, supports, braces, or spirits. This is be- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 37 

cause we neglect to use our natural powers, and 
they fail to act or are taken from us. 

In fact, when we exercise that which we have it 
is doubled and is ours without cost; when we use 
borrowed or bough ten helps, stimulants as they 
are. they cost us something, and are lost with the 
using and worse as we acquire the habit and want 
more. 

EVIL HABITS. 

We find the opinion largely prevails that evil 
habits are more easily acquired than good ones. I 
freely admit that taking the superficial arguments 
they are largely in its favor. But when we look 
upon our inner self, those of us who have had 
many years of experience, we find it quite the 
reverse. 

How often we hear of the wayward child being 
reclaimed by the remembrance of the mother's 
teachings. In fact, all who have been blessed with 
a kind mother, even to the age of ten years, have 
felt its good effects. Why is this? The kind words 
of the best mother and the good advice would not 
amount to one-tenth the harsh words, the wicked 
words, the bad deeds, we have come in contact 
with, not taking into account the rehearsals of 
crime and misdoings we read daily in our daily 
newspapers, and all classes of trashy literature. 

Then why does the mother's words prevail long 
after she has passed from earth? Because they 
were spoken in a kind and encouraging way, with 



38 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

no other object than of leading her child in the 
paths of eternal life. The writer looks back to his 
boyhood days, when he found a bill book, with a 
large sum of money, in a lonely road: half a mile 
farther on he met a man riding along, looking down 
in the road, who never spoke. After he had passed 
I called to him, and asked if he had lost anything; 
he turned, and demanded sternly: "Did yon find 
my pocketbook ?" When I handed it to him, with- 
out saying a word he looked the contents over, and 
remarked: "'There is nearly ten thousand dollars 
in that book; if it was not so far back to town I 
would buy you some randy."' and then turned and 
went his way. 

Again, as a clerk in a general store. 1 one day 
found a live-dollar bill, which I took to the proprie- 
tor to discover the owner. After weeks, when no 
one had called to claim it, the proprietor, a wealthy 
man, said: "Well, as the money was found on my 
premises, it is mine!' 1 and it mingled with his cash. 

Those are only two of many I might mention on 
the adverse side: but alas! how few 1 recall on f he 
other side. Yet one bright star stands out alone, 
that in its brilliancy obliterates the many dark 
spots that have been left upon the memory of a poor 
boy trying to keep his head above the tides of a 
bustling world. 

In collecting for a St. Louis house, in the early 
seventies, on the d;iy I am about to refer to, I col- 
lected from various wholesale houses, one of which 
was the firm of Jacob S. Merrell. I had received 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 39 

checks every place but at Merrell's. I noticed this. 
a.s he usually paid in one- clay sight drafts, of a very 
unpretentious appearance. Upon making up my 
cash on my return to the office. I had five dollars 
too much money. This was late Saturday. On the 
following Monday I called on Mr. Merrell and asked 
how his cash had balanced on Saturday. He re- 
plied : "Why, my dear boy, we wholesale and retail 
and pay out of the same drawer, and have no means 
of knowing how our cash stands ; but if we have not 
payed you enough, if you will tell us the amount 
of the shortage, we will make it right/' I said:- 
"You paid me too much.' 7 He said: "I hardly 
think I did. Did you not collect from others?" 
when I explained to him. '-Well," said he, "you 
have got some of your money mixed with your col- 
lections." As my salary was very small, I never 
had any money after paying board Saturday night, 
and I had found this before I had been paid, and 
told him it was not mine. "Well/' said he, "I guess 
I made the mistake, and I will give you the five 
for. your honesty." After his offering to make 
good the mistake, when he supposed it coming to 
me, I felt that to take the reward would be as bad 
as to have kept it in the first place. I refused it; 
and he quietly thanked me, turned and put the 
money in the drawer, took a five from the safe, 
came out of the office to where I stood, and said: 
"You must take this to remember me. I feel so 
glad to find an honest boy ; I know you will con- 
tinue to be honest, for there is nothing so great in 



40 THE INVOLUNTARY FORGES. 

this world. Now," continued he, "let me say to 
you in all candor: I am an old man, I have been 
in business and public life many years, and during 
all this time 1 have never known honesty to fail of 
its purpose. You may see times when the chances 
seem against it. but life is not made up of one 
time, and honesty will eventually prevail." 

While the two first cases have come into my 
mind many times, they were associated with a dis- 
gusting influence; but the latter, from the good old 
Jacob S. Merrell. who was loved by all who knew 
him. though a comparative stranger at the time, 
has been a beacon light to me and led me through 
many temptations, and I attribute to it my ability 
to pass over safely the many temptations we meet 
in an active business life, and thank God for Jacob 
S. Merrell, and hope that every young may meet 
such as he. 

HOW TO APPLY THE FOREGOING IN LIFE. 

Instead of saying to the child: "You are the 
meanest, contrariest child in the world," or, "the 
worst boy in the school," say: "You can be one of 
the nicest boys in the school, and if you will be 
kind to your playmates they will all love you." 
Any one will do good for the sake of being good, 
rather than from fear of evil. Again, the effect of 
the harsh suggestion is bad. By saying, "Why 
don't you quit running." or. "why do you eat so 
much of this, it makes you so fat and large: I can't 
get clothes to Ht you." Or the reverse may be said 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 41 

if too poor. The proper thing to say is that the}' 
^ill be just what you may wish them to be, and if 
the suggestion is given in a kind way, often it will 
bring the desired effect. In the first case, the ten- 
sion of the muscles is set by the bad picture pre- 
sented; in the last case, the tension is relaxed by 
the kind suggestion, and nature works out Lhe 
picture. A good commander in battle, or a tire 
chief, always gets a heartier response when he says 
in a kind wa} r : "Come on, boys!" than when with 
an air of authority he says '"Go on!" 

An employer who asks his help to do a thing has 
better service than one who tells them to do it: or. 
as I have heard them say, "George, you may do this," 
instead of saying "why don't you do this?" An 
invitation is always preferable to a command. The 
former smooths the temper, relaxes mind and body; 
the latter contracts both mind and body. The 
same thing may be noticed in disease. Anything 
pleasant or agreeable relaxes the system, while the 
reverse will contract it. 

A very hard spank from a mother in play is en- 
joyed fully, while a light one by way of punishment 
produces anger and grief. Take two children as 
near equal as may be and start them in school. To 
the one you. say: "Now, I want you to keep up 
with the foremost of your classes; you have such a 
good start, you learn so easily, and are always so 
good in school; I know you will be ahead of the 
class." To the other say: "Now, I don't want you 
to let me hear of you being behind in your lessons, 



42 ' THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

you slow, indolent thing: you will never amount to 
anything: you will he a regular street gammon; no 
one will have anything to do with you; you will die 
"with your hoots on some daw" 

Who will not say the first will learn the fastest 
and he the hest hehaved. Hundreds of pages might 
be written of the had suggestions which we hear 
daily given, and to show (as the old saying was) 
why it is pleasanter for the cat to rub her hair the 
way it laid than against it. Then why not in dis- 
ease take the same advantage ? 

Rather than say you have consumption, speak 
of it as a cold or cough, and do not scare the 
patient: and so on in fevers and every disease, in- 
stead of making it the worst disease the doctor can 
think of. or what is just as had. say. "I must wait a 
few days until the symptoms are more pronounced 
before I can tell how bad you are." 

"All will readily see that this paralyzes the in- 
voluntary forces with fear, the circulation is im- 
peded, and the disease ripens into about what the 
patient was made to expect. There would certainly 
have been nothing lost by giving encouragement to 
the patient, and if. perchance, the worst fears of 
the physician were realized, his abilities to treat 
were just the same, and the patient could not have 
been injured. All this is done with a knowledge 
of the fact that the physician must depend upon 
the involuntary forces for the restoration of his 
patient, and the very first thing lie did was to han- 
dicap this force by the fear of a had spell of sick- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 43 

ness. I have cured by magnetc treatment quite a 
number of cases that were pronounced consumption 
by good and honest physicians. 

The lungs were very weak with a short costal 
breathing, chest, temples, and nostrils, contracted ; 
night sweats with hectic fever during the day, 
bronchial tubes much thickened, and every energy 
dormant. There rnay have been taberculi in the 
lungs, but that matters not. When they were told 
they had no consumption, that the bronchial tubes 
were slightly thickened, and they needed more 
fresh air by better breathing to restore action k) 
the lungs; their condition was soon improved by 
the relaxation of their system, strong abdominal 
breathing followed, the complete^ areated cells of 
the lungs were soon strengthened by every drop of 
blood in the body, the patient became strong, and 
if there had been tuberculosis, they w r ere soon ex- 
pelled as they cannot live on sound flesh. 

TYPHOID FEVER. 

I was called to see a man w r ho had been treated 
by a physician. The patient lay tossing about the 
bed. He was parched with typhoid fever, the 
doctor said. He held two large set rings in his 
teeth, while he swore vengence on the man who 
had stolen his rings. He knew neither father, 
mother, nor sister. Another sister had been wired 
±o come, as the doctor said she must reach there by 
morning if she was to see him alive. Not heeding, 
I placed my hand kindly upon his head, stroked his 



44 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

temples, and all the time giving good suggestions. 
though apparently unheeded by the patient. In 
fifteen minutes his temperature was about normal, 
he talked rational and was resting. Turning to his 
father, he said: "Pa, if Mr. Miller would come and 
treat me once a day I would be out of bed in three 
days." His father said: " He shall." 

After his father promising that he would not 
say anything to the doctors about it then or any 
future time, and allow them to come and see the 
patient but not let him take any of their medicine, 
I agreed to treat him. In three days he actually 
was walking around the room, though he was very 
weak. His physicians had been treating him 
according to the practice for typhoid, but had 
doubted his constitution being able to wear out the 
fever: had given careful instructions (in his | 
ence) not to allow anything to worry him for fear 
of a hemorrhage of the bowels. His mother also 
enjoined him that he must mind what the doctor 
said, as his cousin had been just like him and died 
very suddenly from a hemorrhage. A person that 
used such suggestions as the doctor and mother did 
could not get a position as janitor in a second- 
class hospital. In the case related the doctors* 
bills were sixty dollars, and I had trouble to keep 
the father from telling them how he was cured. 
They were both friends of mine, and 1 only took 
the case to save the young man's life, and charged 
nothing. No matter how low the patient, no mat- 
ter how young the child, the sympathetic touch or 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 45 

good suggestion will relax the ^system and the 
patient is very soon better. I have tried it in 
mumps, whooping cough, earache, toothache, colic. 
chills and fever, and almost all ordinary troubles, 
and never failed to relie f /e nor to effect a perfect 
cure, if I had a chance to treat a few times. But 
some one says, "Yes, but that cure won't last/' 
With medicine the system is drugged, or stimulated, 
until relaxed, and his own forces must build him 
up. In the other we cause the system to relax by 
kindness, either in word or by the hand, and have 
accomplished just what the medicine did, but with- 
out injury to the organs; the same power builds the 
patient as built him after the medicine had had its 
effect, and anyone can readily see had less repair to 
make, as the sytem was not hurt by the latter, and 
was enervated by pleasant methods, and not nau- 
seated by noxious drugs, and that power that has 
never failed to repair you when allowed to do so 
will build up any part if the organ has not been re- 
moved that has charge of the building the kind of 
cells for that part, or the circulation can reach that 
part with material. The man who tells you he has 
something that will build any part of your body is 
either speaking of his remedy that will help you 
relax, is ignorant of the principle of creation, or 
refers to his remedy that relaxes the system, or has 
a slight regard for the truth. There is even no 
medicine to make blood ; it is true there is food 
that produces blood, and any kind of nourishment 
will produce food for any part of the body building; 



4f) THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

which is made i^i different kinds of cells, and the 
blood is the vehicle that conveys it to the pari to 
be built, but it is an acknowledged fact by all med- 
ical works that no stimulant forms any part of our 
bodies nor blood, and the same thing is said of nar- 
cotics. Now there is no medicine that does not 
stimulate an organ, that has a specific action upon 
the system, except it be a narcotic, and no one 
claims that a narcotic does anything but destroy 
power of action. 

THE WORLD GROWS BETTER EVERY DAY. 

With noiseless step the world goes on; 
The earth shakes under evil's tread. 
We hear the uproar, and 'tis said 
The world grows wicked every day. 

It is not true; with giaot feet 
In silence virtue sows her seed, 
While sin goes shouting out its deeds, 
And echoes listen and repeat. 

But surely, as the old world moves, 
And circles round the shining sun, 
So surely then God's purpose runs, 
And all the human race improves. 

Despite bold evil's noise and stir, 
Truth's golden harvests ripen fast ; 
The present far outshines the paet — 
Men's thoughts are higher than they were. 

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 47 

HOW MEDICINE CURES. 

For children warm aromatic teas have a soothing 
effect and usually cause relaxation. Often in adults, 
where the stomach has refused food and strong 
medicine, their effect relieves the nausea. 

But the adult is by habit more material and 
must take something that is called medicine. In 
any case where the patient is old enough to reason, 
if you give something and cause them to think it a 
powerful medicine, the effect will be what they 
expected. They knew what the same had done 
before, and the involuntary forces gave way to 
what the conscious mind believed was the effect of 
the medicine, and the relaxation afforded the relief. 
On the other hand, if they thought from past expe- 
rience that morphine would not produce sleep in 
them, they will find themselves 'awake and de- 
lirious. 

I once had a bachelor friend who was troubled 
with insomnia, and had to take morphine tablets to 
produce sleep. One night, while disrobing for the 
night, he broke a collar button of the ordinary cel- 
luloid variety. Finding sleep impossible, he arose, 
took a morphine tablet from the box, went to the 
washstand to get some water, dropped the tablet 
on the carpet, lighted a match, found what he sup- 
posed was the tablet, swallowed it and went to bed. 
He was awakened the following morning two 
hours later than was his usual time to wake. There 
on the carpet by the washstand lay the tablet. He 



4S THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

had swallowed the collar button (which was verified 
later) and had slept soundly all night. 

All we want is the disposition, and we relax: 
but you cannot scold nor drive it into anyone. The 
old adage, "pour oil on the troubled water."' holds 
good today. Many kinds of roots and herbs, by 
their pleasant and exhilerating effect, relax the sys- 
tem: their use has attested the fact for ages, as 
every old mother well knows. In fact, years 
when what we now know as neuralgia of the stom- 
ach, was only colic, there was no ol her remedy 
for our disease but the old-fashioned herbs. Their 
extracts are yet used by physicians, under their 
Latin names. Most medicines in use now are in 
their concrete form and are too strong For the 
tern: besides, they have lost their soothing effects 
and only retain their therapeutic effect, or the 
power to weaken the system and coerce the nerves 
to relax. Again, as in rhubarb (pie plant), we may 
use large quantities of the rapid growth stems with 
pleasant effects; but when we take the extract of 
the old and slow growth root, we Hud it a poison. 
and a small dose will cause severe griping before 
action is produced. Most medicines now used are 
poison, and kill the strength of the muscles dump- 
ing the contents of the stomach upon the bowels; 
note the sickening feeling and pain before the 
muscles give way. Fever drops act upon other 
muscles, but produce the same effect on other parts 
of the system, causing a reaction and thereby cool- 
ing the body. Another class of medicines that are 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 49 

now largely in use by physicians and in patent 
medicines, are opiates. Perhaps the afflicted were 
largely responsible for this, as all want relief as 
soon as possible, and are apt to think the physician 
who relieves the quickest is the best; if the remedy 
was in itself harmless this would be true. Doctors 
have been driven to the use of opiates for their 
own protection, against the rapid cures of the dan- 
gerous one-minute remedies that flood the country. 
The large part of opiates is from the juice of the 
poppy, yet there are many others as disastrous in 
their effects. All are dangerous if the heart action 
is not the best, which shows conclusively that they 
are of the dangerous type, and if they will kill a 
weak person they will injure one stronger. Their 
names are as numerous as their strength, and all 
produce anaesthesia, or loss of feeling: the sensory 
nerves are dead, as it were. There being no pain, 
the involuntary muscles relax and the rebuilding 
process goes on in part, until the effect of the rem- 
edy has been overcome and all the functions allowed 
to work. I have known persons under the effect of 
chloroform, where they had no sense of feeling, to 
conduct a quite rational conversation, and even 
take part in one which had been introduced after 
they were insensible. They would give quite intel- 
ligent answers to all questions, but in a monotonous 
tone, always without the least animation, as the 
conscious mind was in abeyance, and there was no 
power to excite anger, no reasoning faculty to 
contend or be offended; in fact, the subjective mind 



50 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

acted as itself from the knowledge of the five senses, 
and not that imparted by our educated mind. The 
effect of this drug is not soothing but stupefying, 
depressing, weakening the whole system even to 
impeding the heart action, and in cases of weak or 
debilitated persons stopping the heart, causing 
death. 

Only two weeks since I read in the Post- Dispatch 
of St. Louis, where a man had so far recovered from 
a severe sickness as to go home from the hospital; 
(the disease was not stated). His physicians, to pre- 
vent a recurrence of the disease, thought best to 
perform an operation. Chloroform was adminis- 
tered in the presence of three good physicians, their 
names being given. All were good, capable sur- 
geons. Before consciousness was entirely gone the 
man was seen to gasp, and was dead. 

The heart's action had been drugged, made 
drunk, killed. The remainder of the article con- 
sisted of ''the funeral will take place from the resi- 
dence, No. street/' etc. 

In hypnotism, we produce perfect anaesthesia in 
any part without interfering with other parts, and 
the heart's action is unimpeded; the patient answers 
all questions positively; never says "I think so." "] 
guess so," or "hope so." but is positive whether in 
the negative or affirmative, and is spoken in a ring- 
ing, cheerful tone. Under hypnotism, we wake the 
patient at any time instantly, feeling better, 
stronger, and rested, ruder opiates, the patient is 
roused by strong si imulants, or walking to contract 






THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 51 

the weakened muscles. Under h} T pnosis, we cause 
the subjective mind to relax the muscles in any 
part and pain ceases there, and this may be contin- 
ued for twenty-four hours if necessary, without 
injury; and I will not attempt to state how long 
this state might be prolonged without injury. 
When the operator sees fit, he instantly awakens 
the subject, and action is restored at once in all 
parts of the system. Under hypnosis, we find the 
paralytic using the limbs so long from his control, 
as well as the weak state of the unused muscles 
would permit: and e.ven in natural sleep, the para- 
lyzed limb is used. 

Again, one who uses the paralyzed limb under 
hypnosis cannot use it when restored to conscious- 
ness; showing the effects of fear governing the sub- 
jective mind through the objective mind, which 
controls the involuntaiy system. 

What we honestly expect (not what we wish to 
happen), or as Paul says, "what we believe nothing 
doubting," will always appear, in our bodily condi- 
tion. I will cite one very extraordinary case which 
I can fully prove and will vouch for. A lady friend 
of our family, the wife of a good alopathic physi- 
cian of thirty-five years practice, in Central Mis- 
souri, was the biibject. 

The lady is a good Christian woman, and the 
husband also, and he ranked as a good physician. 
She had been afflicted for years with humid asthma, 
which finally resulted in consumption. (I quote 
the opinion of the doctors.) At a meeting of the 



•yl THE [NVOLTJNTARY FORCES. 

Hodgen Medical Society, in their town, the lady 
was subjected to a rigid examination by the physi- 
cians who met there. Analysis of the sputom was 
made, which were profuse and of a very alarming 
nature. The analysis showed tuberculosis in 
abundance, and decided there was no hope for im- 
proving her condition. They gave it as their 
opinion, that from two to three months was the 
limit of her life. The lady had her burial clothes 
made; was confined to her bed, and had not 
strength enough to raise her head often enough to 
expectorate. A newspaper was spread out for that 
purpose when there was no one at the bed to assist 
her: morphine and whiskey were given her to re- 
lieve pain and sustain energy. Her daughter, who 
had just buried her husband, came home to stay 
with mother until she died. In talking with her 
mother she asked why she had not taken absent 
treatment from a celebrated magnetic healer that 
was advertising largely, and curing thousands. W^v 
mother had known nothing of him. hut was soon 
induced to try him. When the doctor was ap- 
proached in the matter, he said: "Wife, God knows 
I would do anything for you I can do and have 
tried everything we know of, but for me who has 
studied and had the benefit of thirty-five years of 
practical experience in medicine, to patronize such 
tom-foolery, I can not do it." 

The idea of absent treatment was beyond his 
comprehension; and we do not wonder at him, 
when the process was not understood. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 53 

His daughter furnished the money for one 
month's absent treatment. The money was sent, 
and in due time a letter was received telling her 
to select an hour for taking treatment, thirty min- 
utes each morning and evening. The letter also 
contained a circular telling her at those hours to 
lie down, and fully relax herself in both mind and 
body, not to formulate a thought, but just rest and 
leave her case entirely with the healer, and she 
would soon feel his thoughts penetrating her sys- 
tem, that the magnetic force would drive out her 
malady and rebuild her worn-out parts, and she 
w T ould soon be well: and also a few minor instruc- 
tions. Xow follows the wonderful part. 

Not remembering dates and hours. I will use 
others in their stead. We will say she wrote the 
healer on the 3rd of the month, stating she had 
selected the hours of 7 a. m. and S p. m. for her 
treatments. She was aware the professor would 
get her letter on the noon mail on the 4th of the 
month, and consequently at her hour, S o'clock, that 
evening she took position as per instructions. She 
relaxed with the expectation of feeling the mag- 
netic power of the professor, and left the case in his 
hands. When she had fully relaxed (perhaps the 
first time in a year), she felt the blood bounding 
through her veins, hastened by the rapid heart 
action caused from the excitement of the new rem- 
edy. As she felt the tingling of the long pent-up 
circulation, like one's foot had been asleep, as we 
say. she knew it was the professoi's magnetism, 



54 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

and that she would be cured. ( \ give her language 
to me.) All fear was banished, a new ray of ho.pe 
enthused and vitalized her system, the power within 
was again on the throne. She took no morphine 
that night. The morning and evening of the 5th 
she took her usual position for treatment, at the 
appointed hour, and had stopped the whisky. In 
fact, she took no medicine, and had nearly stopped 
coughing. She had taken treatment four days, and 
could sit up and was eating nicely, when she re- 
ceived a letter from the professor that Inn- hours 
selected for treatment had been adopted and her 
treatment would begin at 8 a. m. on the 9th — four 
days after she had begun. She had thought her 
treatment going on (and it was) by her doctor, and 
the results were so grand she just continued it. and 
was entirely cured — gained twenty-seven pounds. 
Though more than a year and a half has passed, 
she remains strong and hearty. It will not be un- 
expected, when I say the doctor and his wife both 
took a course in magnetic healing from the same 
professor at a cost of one hundred dollars; the 
doctor remarking to me. "1 have practiced hnm- 
buggery all my life, and can do no worse." They 
are now both magnetic healers. 

The foregoing can be fully verified and has been 
advertised all over the land and sworn to by the 
lady in court in a celebrated Missouri case (a- to 
the cure, but the discrepancy of time was not stated). 
Who could ask for a better evidence of relaxation 
and expectancy, with the results? 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 00 

111 child birth relaxation is very essential. Many 
cases might be cited, and reasons given to show its 
benefits. 

A number of years ago a lady near Jefferson 
City. Missouri, experienced great difficulty in giving 
birth to a child. Six doctors had failed to relieve 
her, but vva.s not allowed by the woman to use in- 
struments. They were induced to "send for another 
well-known physician, who had a reputation in 
such cases. He went, rather reluctantly, and ascer- 
tained the critical condition the woman was in. 
Recognizing that something must be done soon, he 
sent for a dentist and chloroform. After getting 
the consent of the parties, he administered the 
drug. The delivery was quite easy, though the 
child had been dead for many hours. The woman 
recovered. That was relaxation at any cost, but 
the best they could do. 

HOW TO PRODUCE RELAXATION IN ANIMALS. 

I have seen a horse that had his sides drawn in 
knots, with what I presume was colic, where the 
skill of a good veterinarian had failed to relieve. 
They said the worms had eaten through the stom- 
ach (which was never the case). The animal was a 
valuable one, and I tried my theory on him. I 
placed a large lot of table salt over the loins and 
wet it with water; when the salt began to produce 
itching, the horse's attention was called to it, and 
relaxed his muscles. In five minutes the horse was 
well and eating grass. Turpentine, or anything 



56 THE INVOLUNTABY FORCES. 

that will produce a sensation, will do the same 
good: anything that removes his mind from the 
pain long enough to relax, will relieve nine times 
out of ten. 

In the early seventies, when cholera was sweep- 
ing the hogs by the hundreds throughout Central 
Missouri, a Mr. French had a herd of over two hun- 
dred hogs, near Pisgah, in Cooper county. They 
were apparently all sick, and many dying. A 
buyer, a stranger there, came to his place to buy 
his hogs. French said the hogs were in no condition 
to sell, as they had cholera. The man said. " What 
will you take per head for all we can get to walk 
out of the lot I " A price was agreed upon. The 
man went to Bnnceton. I think, about eleven miles, 
engaged cars, and the following morning returned 
with a lot of men and boys to start the hogs. He 
whipped and drove all he possibly could out of the 
lot. divided them into small bunches for each hand, 
with instructions to whip. rush, and drive them as 
fast as they could. Scarcely a hog died that they 
got through the gate, and not one which they 
succeeded in getting exercised: all reached the 
railroad, ate well, were carred, shipped to St. Louis, 
and sold on the market as sound hogs. 

So much for the relaxation by exercise. In 
eighty-one I knew a farmer in Central Missouri, 
who had a large lot of ho^s afflicted with cholera, 
and many dying. His chief desire was to accumulate 
wealth, with but little regard as to how lie procured 
it. He wished to market the hogs and net all he 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 57 

could out of them. Fearing to attempt to ship 
from home, he concluded to drive them to Jefferson 
City, a distance of over forty miles. He had plenty 
of help, and in order to get to market with as 
many hogs as possible, he instructed the men to 
rush the hogs as much as was considered safe. He 
never lost a hog that he succeeded in getting in 
action; but had selected sixteen of the hogs which 
had kept in a distant part of the pasture from the 
others, and seemed to be all right; this bunch he 
put into auother lot. The hogs he kept and did 
not exercise, all died. In both cases referred to, 
the driving was evidently the remedy, as the exer- 
cise, the diversion, caused the hogs to relax and 
they were free from the malady. 

But one says, "What caused the cholera or con- 
traction in the first place? Have dumb animals 
fear that contracts?" I must say in reply to that, 
"I clo not know; you must ask the hog.' ? There may 
be, and most likely is, a microbe or germ, like starts 
many other ailments. But the hog was very likely 
dependent up the feed and did not exercise enough, 
aiid very probably inhaled too much dust, which 
caused uneasiness or disease, and he contracted on 
account of the feeling, his functions were sus- 
pended, and the germ or microbe found congenial 
soil to work in. Remember; nothing foreign can 
thrive in our bodies, or upon our flesh, when it is 
in an improving condition ; but seem to be nature's 
scavengers to convert decay into material fit for 
other creations. 



58 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

Again, my brother, who owned and operated a 
drug store for thirty-two years, was called upon 
during the hog cholera epidemic for a cholera rem- 
edy. The doctor had such a good reputation in the 
knowledge of medicines, that he disliked to turn a 
man away: besides, he was anxious to compound a 
cholera remedy. He prepared a solution of carbolic 
acid and water, disguised by adding coloring mat- 
ter, and told the man that it would either kill or 
cure his hogs, with instructions to allow them 
plenty of fresh water to drink. The man had a 
good many hogs, and had to draw the water from 
an unhandy well, so he gave each hog a tablespoon- 
ful of the solution and turned them out in the 
woods pasture, that extended to the creek, a half 
mile distant. 

The medicine created an immediate demand for 
water, and the hogs started for the creek as fast as 
they could go. After all had been treated to the 
medicine and turned out. he followed them to see 
the effect of the medicine. He found some drink- 
ing and others rooting around, and all got well. 
The news spread, and the demand for Miller's chol- 
era remedy was good in them parts. How about 
the results ? 

In every case where it was used, where the hogs 
were compelled to exercise under the burning 
thirst, they got well; ami wherever they were kept 
in the pen. and water furnished them, or where the 
water run through the lot and con Id be obtained 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 59 

without exercise, the hogs died, and with them the 
fame of Miller's hog cholera remedy. 

HOW \YE CURE UNDER HYPNOTISM. 

Hypnotism is not claimed to be a therapeutic 
remedy: it is only the sure means of reaching a 
desired end. The writer, while not given to stage 
performances nor hypnotic display, is perhaps one 
of the strongest hypnotists in the country, and has 
investigated thoroughly through actual practice, 
its effects and workings upon almost every phaze 
of humanity, and all ages of subjects, under varied 
surroundings. Having a natural tendency to inves- 
tigate, and in fact can never follow any instructions 
unless he understands the whys and wherefores, or 
what cause produced the effect, his investigations 
have been rewarded. It has been claimed that 
under hypnosis, by repeating frequently a sugges- 
tion for the cure of headache; for example, "Now, 
your head is well and all pain gone/' that the 
patient's subjective mind accepts the suggestion 
and drives out the pain from the head. I will admit 
this produces the desired result, but I can take the 
same patient, under hypnosis, and suggest to him, 
•'Now your nerves are completely relaxed, you are 
perfectly limber," and the headache has disappeared, 
without the suggestion of any ache. I can do more: 
I can suggest their headaches, and then suggest 
relaxation and the ache has disappeared. 

I can, where pain is rheumatic, in both arms, 
suggest, "Now your right arm is perfectly relaxed, 



60 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

it is perfectly limber," and not mention the pain 
nor rheumatism; awaken the subject, and his right 
arm will be free from pain or soreness, while the 
left will remain as it was; or may be made worse 
if I had told him his muscles were rigid in that 
arm. All depends upon relaxation and contrac- 
tion. 

We will, under the proper heading, give instruc- 
tions for hypnotising, with all necessary safeguards 
to equip anyone to operate with safety but will 
here only speak of it sufficiently to prove our asser- 
tions as to the involuntary forces, and disabuse the 
mind of the so-called dangers of hypnotism, and 
expose some of the unreasonable things claimed 
for it, by a lot of unscrupulous persons, to facilitate 
the sale of their cheap literature. Hypnotism does 
not cure. It is a state of rest of the conscious 
mind that dominates the subjective mind in the 
waking state. When consciousness is at rest, our 
subjective mind has access to the five senses, unless 
the operator suggests the contrary. We find musk 
is recognized as musk, ammonia as ammonia, the 
rose possesses the same fragrance when placed lo 
the nostrils as when we are awake, and the\ n< 
fail to recognize a flavor, as we sometimes do when 
we are awake. The same will be the case in any of 
the five senses. Yet, as we are deceived by them 
when awake, so the operator by suggestion may 
delude the mind through the senses. 

Let the operator say to the subject. "Here is a 
bottle of your favorite perfume;" at tbe same time 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 61 

place a bottle of ammonia to the subject's nostrils, 
and it will be inhaled with delight; now suggest 
ammonia, and substitute the perfume, and the sub- 
ject will be stifled with the fumes. Cayenne pep- 
per is freely eaten for ice cream, under the sugges- 
tion; your own beautiful baby sister is transformed 
into a huge negro man; your wife as the president 
of the United States; a delicate young man will 
caress and imprint a kiss upon a two weeks' growth 
of beard on the face of a man, with the purest 
ecstacy. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that while 
the subjective mind is uninterrupted it is unerring; 
in the use of the sense of sight, feeling, touch, taste, 
and smell; in fact, more accurate than in the 
waking state. But when directed by the operator, 
w T ho has taken control when the other lost control, 
is subject to him; and yet there is always a half 
consciousness apparent in the patient, that says I 
know better than I am acting; and when we try to 
cause the subject to do something that would be 
seriously objectionable when awake, he becomes 
.sullen: and if insisted upon further, will awaken 
fully. I stated the five senses were more accurate 
under hypnosis than when awake, and will cite a 
few cases to show that our intellects may be at 
fault, or rather deluded, deceived, or misled. We 
often say our impressions have been changed; and 
of course have been presented to our subjective 
mind as our objective mind first saw them: whether 
.true or false. When our impressions have been 



(V2 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

changed, both minds are changed, and have had 
two distinct opinions of one thing through the 
medium of some of the five senses, and one of them, 
or it might be both, are false. 

I take an ordinary pack of playing cards; the 
backs are the same throughout; or take visiting 
cards, white on one side, or if yon like I would just 
as soon have them plain white on both sides so 
yon can identify the card yon selected when you 
see it again. I hypnotize a child and place the cards 
with the backs to the subject, the top card being 
the one yon had selected. I call the attention of 
the subject to a picture, or anything I may think 
of, and say: ''Yon see that picture of George 
Washington on that card! r Then yon take the 
cards and mix them up any way you like, keeping 
the backs all one w r ay; hold them in front of the 
subject, backs toward him, and I say: "Find me 
the picture of George Washington." and they will 
run through the cards rapidly until they come to 
the card first shown them, and hand it to me with 
the greatest assurance. I have never seen it fail. 

Blindfold a subject under hypnosis, and allow 
fifty persons to pass noiselessly, and each one touch 
the hand of the subject. Some will not provoke 
any expression whatever; while if there are those 
of the style or quality he likes to associate with, 
his countenance will denote pleasure; if someone 
he dislikes, or is of a class not to his liking, he will 
denote displeasure, or if of an irritable temper may 
get angry. The intensity of expression will always 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 63 

depend upon the temperament of the subject. Any 
tune may be heard if suggested, even where there 
is none; and a subject upon being told he is listen- 
ing to a comic lecture, may be convulsed with 
laughter. 

The live senses are educative, and, like all educa- 
tion, may be wrong. As we have succeeded in 
showing, all of the senses can be perverted, and 
that they often are, by the conscious or reasoning 
mind; we can readily see how we may educate 
wrongly for centuries in the way of healing the 
sick, by once starting wrong and then trying to 
improve a false theory, instead of building upon a 
true principle. 

It may be compared to the well-acted drama. 
The scenes, words and expression, all operate life- 
like on our nerves, and we are moved to tears, con- 
vulsed with laughter, or frigid with fear, from what 
we actually know 7 is only a play and never occurred 
only in the mind of the author. 

The serial story writer unconseiousl\ r plays with 
this same power, and the minds of thousands have 
been wrecked by following the perverted senses, 
until they had contracted in one w T ay so long they 
w<ere powerless to reverse their habits, when mind 
and body both gave' way. All this proves that our 
nerves and muscles, both motory and sensory, are 
governed by the subjective mind and receive such 
impression as the objective mind may allow the five 
senses to convey to it. 

No one can be hypnotised against his will. Xo 



♦)4 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

one can be made do anything that he or she would 
not do in the waking state. Many things, however, 
may be done, if in the subject's vein of nature, that 
he would not care to do when awake, either from 
thinking he lacked the ability or a fear of appear- 
ing ridiculous. Usually, in having a subject per- 
form those ludicrous things, we cause them to 
believe there is no one in the room — when they can 
see hundreds: but a free-care little fellow will 
deliver an oration upon a subject he has never 
heard of when told he is addressing an audience of 
college professors. 

That power within never errs if free from influ- 
ence; it is the kingdom within you, the soul, that 
dictates until it is no longer heeded, or to use the 
Bible phrase, "until it is seared as with a hot iron; " 
burned over until all the pores are closed, not an 
avenue for the pleadings to reach us. You can not 
control a subject after he has awakened, except by 
post hypnotic suggestion; that is. you suggest some- 
thing for him to do after he has awakened, and if it 
is in the range of what he might be expected to do 
ordinarily, he will generally obey, but to allow him 
to go away and then influence him through your 
mind, it can not be done. All such statements are 
only to play upon the credulity of persons who 
invest with the hope of profiting themselves from 
others they hope to influence. I am pleased to be 
able to assure all such, their folly is all the reward' 
they will ever have. 

The many wonderful things promised through 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 65 

hypnotism, in cheap advertisements, has had a bad 
effect upon a class of superstitious folks, who are of 
the calamity class, always ready to believe anything 
that portends evil, and never crediting anything 
that promises good. 

Many persons would have avoided pain, and 
often death, if they had not been afraid that hyp- 
notism was of the devil; such are very ignorant in 
that source, no matter what knowledge they may 
have on other matters. 

Fortunately, those who are always predicting 
evil, harm no one but themselves, except as dis- 
turbers. They have predicted the downfall of the 
nation, the downfall of the church, the plagues, 
the destruction of crops, cyclones, hot, cold, wet, 
dry and stormy weather, and many other disasters 
that have never been realized. These predictions 
are to the wise like the contrary suggestion is to 
the mind, they do not turn us back, only slow us up 
a little; while the suggestion from a good source: 
good health, good crops, good times and weather, 
good government, and the good results from being 
good, such as being temperate, charitable, kind in 
word and act, and the world of goodness resulting 
from good thoughts, actually win souls to good, 
turn the tide of evil doers to good works, to health 
and happiness. 

As the fire and brimstone side of Christian work 
is almost extinct, and the people are being influ- 
enced to do good for the sake of good, I sincerely 
hope that temperance workers will adopt the same 



66 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

rule, and drop the calamitous predictions and danger 
signals, that good may result earlier from their 
labors. 

1 also hope that advertisements of medicines, 
physicians, and patents, will change their style and 
use the good suggestion, and not hang out the 
danger signals of coughs, colds, consumption, can- 
cers, la grippe, etc., to hold up those in health from 
taking on the daily nourishment to keep their body 
strong, while the daily wear of life is eating out the 
supply on hand. If you would do your child good, 
speak good thoughts to him: if you would have him 
be a man, encourage manly virtues and graces: if 
you would give them health, suggest healthy 
thoughts, and so on through the various category. 
Use your good or God-given qualities, desire and 
hope, that Paul says "maketh not ashamed/' and 
whether it is for good deeds, for good health, for 
honor or exaltedness in this world or the world to 
come, you will surprise yourself at what you have 
achieved. The recitals of crime and vice, the 
achievements of the wicked, that are daily filling 
our papers, have already alarmed the calm think- 
ers of the world. If the publications could he 
abated, and their recitals stopped on our streets 
and around our homes, the result that would follow 
would be grand: truly, the millenium would begin. 

The reading daily of crime and vice which is 
being highly colored to cause a demand: by excite- 
ments, and their recitals by every one we meet, 
grinds off their heinousness; by constant repetition 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 67 

sears, as it were, their hideousness. until they are 
first common, then tolerable, and finally habitual. 
We acquire everything by habit. Fear begets fear, 
vice begets vice, one drink calls for another, one 
oath calls for another, one lie for another. If we 
use ourselves to meat, coffee, tea, alcohol, the deli- 
cacies, the sports, medicine, heavy clothing or light, 
frequent eating or twice a day, short or long sleep, 
late or early hours, trashy or good literature, being 
content with what we have or wanting the earth, 
content with the weather or grumbling, staying 
at home or on the go; and so it is with everything, 
we find our habit growing upon us, just as we 
learned everything we know, by constant repeti- 
tion. May God speed the day when we begin at the 
right place: add to your faith virtue, to virtue dili- 
gence, brotherly kindness, and so on in their order 
until the crowning event — -godliness — is attained. 

Do not try to make a godly image out of a poor 
measly effort to be a human, and expect him to 
remain godly, but build health in mind, body and 
soul. 

HOW LINIMENTS OFTEN BENEFIT. 

All liniments are made from ammonia or the 
essential oils. All of these are very penetrating 
and reach the most deeply imbedded muscles. By 
their extraordinary strength they weaken the 
muscle that has by its contraction caused the pain; 
it then relaxes. Others are partly of ingredients 
that intoxicate the muscle and weaken its tensil 



bO THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

strength, and it is relaxed. Frequently the applica- 
tion of liniments and pain killers are the remedy 
themselves; as, for example: dry in by applying 
hot flannels, or rub in well by a hot fire. Both the 
rubbing and the heat are relaxing to the muscles. 
Some years ago I had a very lame back, made pain- 
ful almost beyond endurance, by sitting in a 
cramped position while writing. A customer asked 
me to go to his house to see a range that was 
not working satisfactoiy. Not feeling able to walk, 
I borrowed a buggy that had been standing in the 
hot son. After I was started I found the leather 
cushion very hot, almost burning. Feeling too bad 
to rise and change the cushion. I bore the heat, and 
to my astonishment soon found a pleasant, easy 
feeling stealing over my hips and back, and the 
pain was soon gone; I had relaxed the muscles by 
the heat from the cushion. Toothache, earache, 
headache, neuralgia, and rheumatism, often give 
way to applications of hot cloths, warm lotions, 
and poultices, relaxing the muscles and allowing 
the free circulation. The same would have occurred 
if you had left yourself, or had the entire mind oft' 
of yourself for a time. 

You have nursed an aching tooth for days, the 
muscular tension from some cause being so great 
as to almost prevent circulation, producing -well- 
ing and pain from pressure of the blood. Ymi 
decide to have it extracted. It has had your entire 
attention all the time; you reach the dentist's 
office; your mind is turned to the dentist 01 the 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 69 

pain he is going to inflict; yonr tooth is left to 
itself ; relaxation is the . result, and your tooth has 
stopped aching entirely. 

RELAXATION FROM FRIGHT. 

We all know of cases where persons in the best 
of health, usually ladies, have fallen in a dead faint 
by seeing some dreadful accident. 

In such cases, while the conscious mind is other- 
wise employed, through the sense of sight or hear- 
ing, the subjective mind gets a direct idea (as in 
hypnosis), without the interference of the reasonings 
mind; the involuntary muscles contract and stop 
circulation, and the voluntary forces are rendered 
powerless. In such cases, if anyone will quietly 
say to the person who has fainted, in a positive 
manner. "You are resting very nicely; you are 
sleeping; you are feeling all right: just sleep, nothing- 
will hurt you or disturb you ; just rest and you will 
soon feel strong." Allow no one to interrupt the 
patient, and repeat the good suggestions a few 
times. In live minutes say to the patient, ''Now 
I am going to wake you up: you will feel well and 
be all right : you are feeling better than you have 
for years: now. when I count three yon will be 
wideawake. All right! Ready: one, two, three !' r 
with a clap of the hands or snap of the linger, and 
your patient is ail right. She had been, virtually, 
hypnotised; that is, she was left without the con- 
scious mind, and you. through the sense of hearing, 
had directed the subjective mind, which is always 



70 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

open for instructions when consciousness is in 
abeyance, and the soul or life inhabits the body, or, 
as physicians say. as long as there is a trace of life. 
I know a good physician, who has practiced for 
forty years, who never sees blood now from a human 
being but he falls into a dead faint. In a few min- 
utes he is up and can operate on a subject with as 
steady a hand and as little care for the pain he is 
causing a< any one. 

In the cases just referred to, from habit or 
u^age. the subjective mind acts on what is presented 
to it without waiting for the conscious mind to 
reason. We may explain it better by referring to 
common place things: Take an audience watching 
a ball game. They are in the amphitheater, with 
a wire net stretched to prevent the ball from in- 
juring them. AY hen the ball is projected toward 
them, they will dodge or ward off the ball. The 
subjective mind, that never reasons, caused the 
involuntary muscles to dodge — the same as we wink- 
when anything comes suddenly toward our eyes, or 
start at a sudden noise, before the conscious mind 
has time to act. This is reflex, or doing a thing 
because we are accustomed to do so. Now, the 
reasoning faculties would say. "that ball can not 
pass through that an ire net." and after we had 
dodged a few times, and the reason bad repeated 
its suggestion, we quit dodging. Our intellect has. 
in the use of many muscles, superceded the power 
that alone can be fully relied upon to guard us for 
health, against every accident, and even all our 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. -71 

misdeeds. While this mind is being lauded as the 
giant intellect, his wonderful reasoning faculty, and 
is being crammed with knowledge, it is hourly 
alienating us from the power within, the I am, the 
soul, that is our sure safeguard in all things when 
left unhampered; and never reasons nor takes 
chances — it just acts and is always right. Another 
case of relaxation under fright is called to mind. 
An uncle of mine years ago had an invalid wife. 
She had doctored until they were financially broke. 
She was a physical wreck. Uncle, from his strait- 
ened condition, had returned to his trade, carpen- 
tering. Aunt had not walked for two years, suffered 
intense pain, and could not allow a draft of air to 
touch her. Uncle would place her in her chair 
before leaving in the morning, and at noon la}' her 
upon the bed a while to rest, and back in the chair 
before going to his work. On the day of which I 
am going to speak, uncle had placed her in the 
chair and went to work, three miles from home, 
wTiere he was building a house. She was sitting 
back from the door, out of the air, both doors open. 
The hired girl was two hundred yards from the 
house, down a hill, at a spring, washing. A farm 
wagon was passing along the road in front of the 
house, followed by a large woolly dog. The dog 
spied the family cat sitting on the gate post. The 
clog charged on the cat; the cat started for the 
house followed closely by the dog, who, in his eager- 
ness to catch the cat, cleared the porch and landed 
squarely in front of aunt, on the floor. It was so 



(2 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

unexpected to her, she sprang up and ran out of 

the house and down the hill to where the girl was 
washing. She was very much fatigued, but after 
resting a while, by the help of the girl, she walked 
home. She gained strength and appetite rapidly, 
and soon attended to her own household duties. 
This occurred thirty-five years ago. They accum- 
ulated property, and now they are well and com- 
fortably fixed in their old age, the result of their 
combined labors. She had never been indolent. 

The sudden presence of the dog scared her. She 
relaxed, and under the excitement made quite a 
trip. This was so indelibly stamped upon her 
mind that she could help herself, that no argument 
of the reason, that she wa> debilitated or afflicted 
could efface it. 

This reminds us that an intense impression is 
just as 'indelible when placed upon our memo- 
if it had been placed there by slow repetition for 
years. In two minutes during great danger our 
memory retains during life thoughts that the con- 
scious mind could not evolve in thirty minutes. 
This is the best evidence that the subjective mind 
knows; while the conscious mind meditates, reasons 
and often is misled by false reasoning, but oftener 
by accepting false theories. We accept the theories 
of other investigators and build on them: we accept 
what has been the usages or the practice. When 
we note the yearly changes in the treatment by 
medicine, and the many different opinions of men 
who are both earnest and honest, we are led to 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. - (6 

believe that the science of medicine is but a short 
distance in advance of bleeding, or the black cat 
skin remedy, with the balance in favor of the cat- 
skin. To kill a black cat and place the warm flesh 
side of the skin to the patient's naked flesh, over 
the seat of- pain, could not result seriously to the 
patient; and would be a read} 7 means of taking the 
patient's mind from himself, and produce relaxa- 
tion. In bleeding, the patient's mind was diverted, 
often freightenecl. which at times produced relaxa- 
tion; if not, they bled again, until the patient 
actually relaxed for want of strength. It is not 
the intention of the author to speak harshly or dis- 
paragingly of any man, his vocation, or theory, but 
shall use such as seem necessary to show the errors 
and their results, and prove the theory of relaxa- 
tion. We speak of it as a theory, as it has not been 
practiced as a science, but we will show from cita- 
tions in every walk, calling, science, and practice in 
life, that we have unconsciously recognized it, and 
known it for hundreds of years. 

The homeopath will tell you that the medicines 
used by alopathic doctors are very poisonous, too 
strong, injurious to the system, injure the constitu- 
tion, and are entirely wrong. The alopath, on the 
other hand, says the homeopath remedies are of no 
use — he doesn't use the proper treatment; besides, 
he uses them in such small quantities they can't 
accomplish anything. Although our faith and .prac- 
tice has been alopath, we readily agree that the 
homeopath is the best — as the injury is the least; 



( ± THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

and if we are so material as to have to take some- 
thing; of two evils choose the least. The eclectics 
and many other kinds of practice differ widely, and 
yet they have studied and had the benefit of others 
knowledge, are honest, and believe their mode 
right. Too many theories in the medical world are 
based upon the fact that the other theories arc 
wrong; and, of course, there must be a right way. 
We will give them all a verdict in favor of their 
opinion, that the other fellow's theories are wrong. 
The entire practice reminds one of the answer 
made a friend of mine in the early days of crossing 
the plains by wagon. At the foot of the mountain 
he said to an old frontiersman, who occupied a 
cabin at the foot of the mountain, "Pardner, which 
is the best pass to cross the mountain T* The man 
said: '"Stranger, if you take either of them you 
will wish you had taken the other. 7 ' We may re- 
joice as far as the doctor is concerned. A few years 
ago the saddle pockets were as large as the haver- 
sack of a soldier in the Philippines: now they are 
down to a vest-pocket case or a Latin prescription 
that an ordinary man can not digest: and will soon 
be numbered with the past. Alas! it is not the 
case with the patent medicines. Through in- 
geniously worded advertisements, they make their 
testimonials fit your case precisely, and as a 
drowning man grasps at a straw, we for fear of 
missing the right remedy try each and every one 
Then we take this one because it was used by 
mother when I was a child, we take another because 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. i 

it is a new remedy, discovered by a physician 
of fifty years practice; another we use because it 
is named after our ailment, like liver tonic, kidney 
oids, and also old Indian. French and Quaker rem- 
edies. But one will say. "You want us to try some- 
thing entirely new." Yes, that is true; but we do 
not want you to take anything. 

You can not be injured if you take nothing, and 
surely you will lose nothing if you stop taking that 
poison for a short time, as you have been using 
it for months with no benefit; and if 3^011 will read 
this book fairly and carefully, no matter what your 
ailments are, you will be enabled to benefit your- 
self speedily, and effect a permanent cure in every 
case. Besides, you need not spend a single cent, 
and if you are able to work at all, you can continue 
to work and be all the better for it. Where the 
disease has been of loug standing, or the patient is 
badly reduced, it takes longer to build up; and 
again, the habit is liable to reproduce the contrac- 
tion by reflex action, and the pain be felt; yet, if 
the patient bears this in mind and does not fear, it 
will be of short duration. 

HOW OUR NOTIONS PRODUCE SICKNESS AND PAIN. 

I knew a man that for ten years had never 
eaten potatoes served as we call mashed potatoes, 
without being sick. He would first feel a sickening 
taste after the meal, then the water would run 
from his mouth, while his jaws were set tightly; 
then followed a sensation as if a coil of rope was 



76 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

being lain in his bowels, or abdominal cavity, until 
it seemed fall, when he would vomit everything off 
his stomach and his eyes would often swell shut. 
You will notice, that although the meal was fin- 
ished and the food was in the stomach, the sick- 
ness began in the mouth or taste, and then went to 
his bowels, where there was no possibility of any 
of the potatoes having reached yet; and further, 
he vomited the contents of his stomach which had 
not hurt him. From some cause he felt the bad 
taste, probably the drippings from the nose. The 
effects of this caused him to contract the muscles 
of the mouth, jaws, and finally the throat and stom- 
ach, with the results given. When this man was 
persuaded that this was the cause, he had the nerve 
to try until he knew, and the result was he never 
was troubled any more, and still used the potatoes. 
He made up his mind to banish fear, and there was 
no contraction, and, of course, no pain. 

Another man for several years could not eat a 
single bite of watermelon, without having the cramp 
colic. By being assured that the fear, and not the 
melon, caused the pain, he at once began eating it 
in any quantity he liked, and never felt any more 
colic. 

1 also knew a 'young married lady who could not 
eat honey without suffering with cramps In the 
stomach or bowels. I saw her one day pick up a 
child and kiss it. when she remarked to the child: 
' k Your mouth is sweet: you have been eating 
candy." The child's mothersaid it had been eating 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 7i 

bread and honey. In a short time the lady had an 
attack of violent cramping, from the taste of honey 
on the child's lips. Primarily the honey was the 
cause, but it was her mind that believed honey 
would cause it, and when she tasted it the fear con- 
tracted in that region and pain was the result. 

With such vivid imaginations, is there any won- 
der some have hysterics? How often we commit 
the same error. Our impressions always supply 
wha.t we expect; though often we^do something of 
take something said to be an antidote or preventa- 
tive, and the mind accepts it and relieves or pre- 
vents the contraction. 

The celebrated physician and anatomist. Dr. 
Hodgen, familiar to every western doctor, and the 
best doctor in the west in his lifetime, in his 
lectures in the old St. Louis Medical College, fre- 
quently related the following, and said it was a welL 
authenticated case of medical record: 

A man was condemned to death. The doctors 
obtained permission to bleed him to death, in the 
interest of science. The man consented, and was 
kept in the best of health, fed on the best foods, 
and was considered free from heart trouble or any- 
thing that might hasten death. 

On the day of his execution, he was placed on a 
bed. His arm extended through a partition into 
another room. In the room where the man lay, 
there were physicians with instruments for taking 
the temperature, pulse and respirations, all of which 
an accurate account was kept. In the other room 



78 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

was a graduated vessel containing water to the 
amount of blood a man of his size would contain. 
A spigot attached would allow the Mood to now as 
fast as the blood would in bleeding. This room 
was operated by doctors who. after the man's con- 
dition had been taken, announced and recorded, on 
the first-named side, struck the arm with an instru- 
ment, as in lancing, and started the water to run- 
ning so it could he heard by the condemned man. 
The condition of the man was taken every time the 
amount of blood was announced, and in a tone that 
he knew the exact condition of the pulse and the 
amount of blood he was supposed to have lost. The 
man's condition changed with the How. and he 
grew gradually weaker, until consciousness left 
him, and died as the blood was gone (or rather the 
water) without the loss of a drop of blood. 

The mind had produced, through the proper 
channels, just what he believed was being done. 
Error of this great intellect had killed him, as it has 
thousands, and with less torture than they. 

Dr. Gregory, while lecturing on materia medica 
in the same school, was in the habit of relating a 
story of an old doctor who had a student reading 
under him. When the young man was about to 
launch upon the w 7 orld for himself, the old doctor 
told him there was yet one Important secret 
that he was not in possession of. and if the young 
man would give him a tine black horse he owned, 
the doctor would give him the secret. The horse 
was turned over to the old doctor, who told his 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 79 

student that belief would kill and belief would 
cure. After years of successful practice in another 
country (all of which the old doctor was aware of), 
the young doctor returned to arrange some matters 
of an estate. He had called to see the old man 
often, and one evening in passing found the old 
man in his garden at work. After talking a bit, he 
asked the old man if he was feeling bad. He said 
no. The doctor said he had many symptoms of the 
contagion he had been treating with such good 
success, and as he saw there were several cases re- 
ported in the country, he thought it best for the old 
man to go in the house and lie down. The old man 
wished the young doctor to go in with him, but he 
could not; he was just going to the depot to make 
the train. The old man had by this time begun to 
feel badly and insisted upon the doctor's services. 
He would be glad to stay with him, but he must be 
in another town to attend a case that if forfeited 
would lose him one thousand dollars. The old man 
readily agreed to pay the thousand for his services. 
He went into the house and remained with the old 
man all night. He was quite sick, and the young 
man dosed him, getting him better, until morning, 
when he pronounced him safe. The old man paid 
him, and asked what the treatment was that gave 
sach relief in such bad cases. He informed him it 
was what he called the black horse remedy. He 
had obtained one thousand dollars for the horse 
that he valued at one hundred and fifty. 

Both of those grand, good doctors related many 



80 ' THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

such cases while lecturing, and enjoined upon the 
young physicians that it must be relied upon for a 
cure. In the face of such instructions they kept 
on cramming the head, that contained this mind, 
for years with Latin- names of stuff he must use to 
produce this and that effect, and if the desired effect 
was not produced, watch the developments closely, 
and depend upon the involuntary forces. 

The question will be asked why we did not dis- 
cover this long ago. We have builded on the old 
foundation so many years that it is considered sac- 
rilege to attack the pr<i<ii<-<\ When a governor 
appoints a homeopath in one of our eleemosynary 
institutions, there is war. and great political 
supremacy alone saves him. In some states the 
doctors have succeeded in having laws passed that 
prevent anyone from ministering to the sick unless 
he has a diploma from a source that is approved by 
a medical board. 

How funny it would be to leave it to one of 
our politicians to say what political party should 
draw the salaries for the next term. 

In one state they arrested a spectacle vender for 
correcting the eyesight by the use of glasses, and 
another man for selling sanitary underwear. This 
is not talk. I have the account of the trial now in 
both cases, and worse stuff than that: and on top 
of that, arrested a man for allowing his child to 
die under the care of a healer, and not allow the 
doctors to kill him.. This same state and law 
allows the Christian scientist to cure: the law 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 81 

states that persons who cure by the mind are 
exempt from the law. Just where the college gets 
its authority to give a diploma with authority to 
kill, and then kick when someone else does, is a 
mystery; or still worse, compel a person to employ 
them, or pay the penalty when we lose one far more 
dear to us than to them. Because a -school is old, 
or a practice is old, is not a sign of excellence. We 
might easily see why a manufacturer of stage coaches 
for fifty years could make a coach that would be 
better to cross the mountains to California than 
one w r ho only had worked a short time at the busi- 
ness: but if we wanted to go to California, and get 
there sure and soon, we would not think of em- 
ploying him. I was told by a medical man that 
they were now raising funds to secure legislation 
against magnetic healing in Missouri. I find ninety 
per cent, of the people have little or no confidence 
in medicine. 

When Mesmer. Charcot, and Braden, attempted 
the solution of mesmerism, or animal magnetism, 
it was examined into by two commissions of hon- 
est, capable men, and they reported the wonderful 
cures that were being made, and gave the winders 
of it in glowing reports. It was then taken up by 
a self-constituted board of physicians, who never 
reported, but had them put in prison for daring to 
use a thing that might be so dangerous as mesmer- 
ism. 

If that had not been done we today would be 
many years in advance in the healing art: not 



^L } THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

because mesmerism or hypnotism cures, hut be< a 
we can study the construction and causes by it, and 
keep the intellect in the proper channels. 

I have before me Woods' Practice of Medicine, a 
well known medical work, published in 1 S54. On 
page 687, after giving many cures that had been 
made, stating the benefits possible in surgery, and 
the corrections of the mind by mesmerism, in just 
as plain terms as the magnetic healer expresses 
them toda} 7 , he dismisses the subject with the fear 
that the use of it might be diverted into danger by 
persons of evil design. The idea has never entered 
their mind that the thief might and does use chloro- 
form, and even infuses it into the keyhole for the 
purpose of robbing or murder. 

It is natural to object to anything that threat- 
ens our business, and appeal to the prejudices of 
the people to gain their assistance. 

Sometimes the case becomes too flagrant, and 
people think for themselves; then it is we begin to 
get at the truth. 

We see the law in most stales holds the druggist 
who compounds the prescription responsible for 
accident, even where the -doctor's prescription was 
wrong and was compounded as it was written. 
Here we find a death, due to the mistake of one 
who is wise in his profession, has the authority to 
administer, and if he kills it is all right as he has 
a diploma, charged to one who must know more 
than the doctor, to be able to rectify his mistakes 
or ignorance: but the same druggist can not pre- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. S3 

scribe for a patient, as he has no license to kill. 
This right is only by common consent, and is 
acquired by clothing his profession in language that 
is not in use and can not be understood by the 
large majority, and at prices that is beyond the 
reach of most men. 

HOW WE SHOW OUR NATURES. 

The phrenologist, the physiognomist, the palm- 
ist, and every man and dog may read our character. 
Our thoughts, our desires, and our every-day life, is 
building the head, the face, the eyes, nose and ears: 
yea, the hand and ever/ line therein. On the same 
unalterable principle, specialists in each line of 
profession have studied character in their line, until 
we find men in every branch of their line that can 
read character by an examination of the head, face, 
or hand, and will surprise anyone by the accurate 
picture they will draw, from what to us is no 
indication. 

Every thought builds character, and in building 
we are erecting a structure. This structure repre- 
sents the kind and quality of material used. Ashy 
paint the rough work of the carpenter is made to 
appear smooth, we by our talk may deceive the 
casual observer. We can not any more deceive the 
expert than we could the skilled mechanic with 
paint. The judge of human nature only bases his 
opinion on the character of the building that is pre- 
sented. His judgment is not from any special 
endowed wisdom, but from the fact that he forms 



84 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

his opinion from the actual picture of our lives, and 
not from our family history, nor the acquaintances 
we have with great men, nor from what we have 
talked for his hearing. All have this power of 
determining character. Yet we do not trust it. We 
look for evidences just where the one who is trying 
to deceive us. has placed the manufactured false 
evidence for us to find. If everyone would rely on 
first impulse, there would be no deception. I have 
never formed a had opinion of a person, and heen 
caused to change it from what others or himself 
said, hut I afterward found the first impression cor- 
rect: and the same applies to good impressions 
formed first. The inherent powers are always 
accurate — while the intellect may he made reason 
wrongly. When you want advice, you pass many 
who have sufficient knowledge to inform you: hut 
something tells you "don't ask him, you can't rely 
on him." You wish assistance, and you find the 
same force operating. Even when you want trivial 
information, that almost any sane person could give 
you. you rind something within impelling you t<> 
ask this man. don't ask that one. Even a dog will 
pass around several persons and run up to a 
stranger, with a wag of the tail and a dog smile that 
says plainly. " 1 am glad to meet you." The fact is, 
we all know better than we realize. All the fore- 
going will he recognized as our daily experience, 
and yet we never think why it is so. or the cause <d* 
those plainly written signs that we display to the 
gaze of everyone. Truly, when we will each he 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 85 

enabled to look upon ourselves knowingly in that 
great day, there will be no need of a judge, no need 
of a book, as each one will have there written his 
own life, which will commend or condemn him. 
How very careful, then, should our actions and 
suggestions be made; for we are really responsible 
for our brother's keeping, if the impressions we make 
on him are a factor in his life, for good or evil, for 
health or sickness, for pleasure or wretchedness. 



WE ARE BUILDING OUR HOMES. 

We are building our homes on eternity's shore 

While we dwell in our structure of clay; 
We are shipping the materials onward before 

With the close of each hastening day. 
We are sending the thought that our soul has wrought 

In the wonderful glow of the brain; 
And the timber is grown from the seeds we have sown 

Mid the shadow of sorrow and pain. 

We are building our homes in the valley of life 

By the side of eternity's seas; 
And the work that we do mid the scenes of earth's strifes 

Shall decide what that home is to be. 
Every thought leaves its trace on that wonderful place, 

Every deed be it evil or fair; 
And the structure will show all the life lived below, 

All the sinning and sorrow and care. 

We are building our home on the beautiful street 

While we dwell in the by-way of fears; 
And the roses that bloom there so pure and so sweet 

Must be watered and nourished by tears. 



86 . THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

And the light that shall shine in a glory divine 
Must be formed mid the darkness and gloom, 

And the foundation laid in the cloud and the shade 
Of the road that leads down to the tomb. 

We are building our homes; may the angels of light 

Bring us wisdom wherever we stray, 
That the mansions eternal be fashioned aright, 

And the sunlight of truth be its day. 
May the rainbow of love form the arches above 

And the river of peace murmur by, 
And our spirit be blest by the glimmers of rest 

We have tent to our home in the sky. 

— Selectt d. 



Every care and every worry leaves its wrinkle, 
every anger or hatred leaves its frown. In fact, 
every bad deed or thought, by contracting certain 
nerves or muscles, leaves its impression, and the 
oftener the imprint is made the greater the scar 
will be; and soon we hear such expressions as these: 
''He has such a sour look," k 'he looks so mean and 
contemptible," "he has a dishonest face" or "1 
should be afraid to meet him in a lonely place, for 
fear he would rob or murder me." Then, again: 
"What a kind face," "that looks like an honest 
man." "he must have a lovely disposition/' or of a 
man arrested on suspicion of crime, ''he -loesn't 
look like a bad man or that he had ever done any- 
thing wrong." 

Why do you say that he does not look like lie 
had done wrong? Why do we use those expressions 
every day/ Have we all become constitutional 
liars? No! We see the marks in that man's face 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORGES. ST 

and unconsciously, or we might say sub-consciously, 
recognize them. We, however, are not so much 
interested in how we know them as how they are 
placed there, and how we may place impressions 
there which we wish others to read of us. 

In our courts the prisoner and the witnesses are 
required to face the jury who shall judge of the 
guilt, and also of the truthfulness of the evidence 
given. We speak of the care-worn expression, the 
sorrowful expression, the person who looks like he 
had seen trouble, and we every day admit the fact 
of the traces left by this mind, and of the weakness 
from grief, and the weakness when she had recov- 
ered from fright, and all know that a large scar is 
only the result of greater force, or oft repeated, 
than a small one. And yet, if you even hint that 
the mind is in any way responsible for your disease, 
you rebel, and the doctor will tell you, "Oh, yes. ,? 
They think you are weak-minded, and this is usually 
sufficient to make you think he is very clever, 
when, in fact, he is only making you worse by the 
suggestion. 

Now, honestly, don't you think after all the evi- 
dence of your own making is carefully considered, 
that you are a little weak in the head? Don't you 
actually feel dishonest with yourself ? Let us start 
right and be honest with ourselves and use our 
judgment, and not what someone else has told you 
that was second-hand a hundred years ago. Trust 
yourself to think, trust your judgment and never 



88 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

decide a thing correct when you must argue with 
yourself to get yourself to believe it. 

HOW CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CURES. 

People who have implicit faith in a God who 
hears and answers prayer, are the best subjects, yet 
a reputation as a wonder-worker and the knowledge 
that one has cured other bad cases, often inspires 
faith enough to accept the treatment and cures. 
When the operator, in a devout manner, asks God 
to heal the patient, a thrill is felt by the acceler- 
ated circulation, which is caused by the relaxed 
muscles in an expectant state. The free circulation 
relieves the pain where the contraction was, and 
the patient is well for the time being. The sup- 
posed knowledge of divine help is acted upon and 
the cure is permanent. Christ said, "whosoever 
believeth shall not only do the things that I do hut 
greater." This is not doubting God's word, nor 
attempting to equal God's works, hut is accepting 
God's teachings as true and showing our faith by 
our works. God is the allwise creator, and created 
us thus, and as is said in his holy word, "It is God 
that worketh in you both to will and to do." This 
alludes to the good things we do or when we arc 
following that good mind. 

I knew a Chicago lady who was a successful 
magnetic healer, but had been a follower of Mary 
Baker Eddy, and had practiced Christian science 
quite as well. She told me she knew that God did 
not deal out special help at her request; but when 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 89' 

she found a person readily susceptible to the 
miraculous, she always used Christian science, or 
divine healing. She explained it requires less time 
and labor, and added: "God has nothing to do with 
it, only that he created us as we are." I had an 
apportunity to see her operate. 

She was a blonde with a wealth of hair, tinged 
with gray enough to lend reverence, a full round 
form, large liquid eyes, and nerve enough to man- 
age a national political campaign. 

After asking her patient a few questions regard- 
ing her ailments (as if God would not know), she 
placed one hand on the patient's head and with the 
other raised to heaven in a beseeching manner, her 
eyes turned upward in a strictly devotional atti- 
tude, she cried: "God, for Jesus' sake, heal this 
poor afflicted woman ! " The woman relaxed even 
to weakness, and said she felt the power in her 
body, the pain was gone, and she believed she was 
cured; and I have no doubt she remained well and 
a believer in divine healing. 

I unhesitatingly pronounce the cure a good 
thing, the woman's new condition of mind a good 
thing, but I do think the manner of accomplishing 
it blasphemy. 

Every person can not readily relax the system. 
In fact, there are many ways of accomplishing it, 
as you who have followed closely the many meth- 
ods of healing will see. What we now want to 
know is, how it may be done without those helps. 
In children who have no knowledge of their con- 



t)0 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

dition, if infants, by the kindest soothing, stroking, 
with a soft. warm, sympathetic hand, they will 
relax. Where is the mother who lias not lain the 
little ones across her lap and rubbed their little 
backs until they squirmed with pleasure, and when 
dressed went right to sleep, and soon the little ours 
would refuse to he comforted until they had their 
little bodies relaxed. Where they are older, the 
warm hand over the seat of pain, with the sugges- 
tion that pain will leave, or whatever you desire to 
accomplish, and you will find the results speedily. 
Do not. however, try to jest or act like you were 
ashamed of the simple remedy, as you can not place 
one suggestion and act another. The patient's 
mind is impressed with the manner it is spoken in. 
and the expression of the face, as well as what Is 
said. Bear in mind, your thoughts are read in tone 
of voice and expression of face. Any adult who 
has read this book and desires health, can, by a 
little practice, accept the facts herein contained. 
and relax. However. I will give other means of 
assistance: Lie down in a quiet place, on your 
back is preferable: do not formulate a thought, or 
allow yourself to dwell on a thought: close the 
eyes, and draw (juite a number of long breaths, 
slowly, as in sleep; just allow yourself to he per- 
fectly limber in mind and body, so that you are 
resting on the bed in every part of you. You will 
soon feel the good blood passing through the entire 
system, and if you had pain it will be gone; if 
fever, it will soon leave you, and if tired you will 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 91 

rest more in ten minutes than in a whole night if 
in a contracted condition. By shaking the limbs 
or making them quiver, the involuntary muscles 
will usually relax. Remember, you can not relax 
the involuntary muscles while any of the voluntary 
muscles are held tight either by the mind or the 
position you lie in. In neuralgia and toothache, 
warm lotions, or deep quiet for half an hour, is a 
good way to relax. After all the cures the old 
adage, "an ounce of preventative is worth a pound 
of cure,'' is true, but not strong enough in the 
statement, for this remedy is worth a thousand 
pounds of cure. Begin when you are well to see 
that you are not contracting your mind or body by 
fear, worry, anxiety, sordid hopes, or depressing 
reflections. Do not follow one way long enough to 
fix a habit: do not speak too loud unless the occa- 
sion requires it, as this is an indication of tension; 
and so is facial contortion while talking. Where 
you must lie to make a statement strong enough, 
you emploj 7 tension; when you swear to what you 
say, you have too much tension; when you use 
strong expletives or raise the pitch of your voice 
at each succeeding word, you have too much. " I 
never never never in all my life saw the like, 7 ' not 
only shows extreme and dangerous tension to 
health, but is extremely bad taste, and impresses 
the hearer that you are hysterical. 

One says, "How are we to quit this?" In all 
patience and diligence. You contracted the habit 
by growing intense, and each time w r orse, until as 



92 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

you practically admit, you can not quit. But you 
can quit! Try it once; the next effort will be 
easier, and finally when you have contracted the 
habit of acting natural, the other is superceded. 

The more intense the habit the longer it take- 
to overcome it. unless by some vivid impression it 
is instantly changed. Another says. "] am so nerv- 
ous, I can't quiet my nerves." As the Irishman 
said. "If you can't be quiet, be as quiet as you 
can," and eacb time you will find it easier ami 
accomplish more. Besides, you are by saying you 
can't, admitting a fact you would not allow another 
to accuse you of, and that is weakness of mind. 

The mind is in control of the nerves, and if we 
think ourselves nervous our nerves are then with- 
out control of the mind. Weakness or lack of 
power is one thing, and nervousness is a not Inn-. 
Our wills are not weak as some say. but arc strong. 
and will prevail if trusted, and indeed must be 
trusted to develope its best work. 

SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF THE MIND OVER THE 
MUSCLES. 

Note the effect on the child that has sustained 
a severe blow. A rapid rubbing by kind hands 
over the injury relaxes the muscles and the blood, 
that would have been held at the injury to coagu- 
late, turn black and remain sore, has passed on in 
its regular channels, as it was uninjured, and indeed 
can not be injured only by not allowing it to circu- 
late. A better evidence of the muscular action is 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 93 

seen when a child sustains a bruise, as we say. 
Someone says, "Poor child, did it hurt you much; 
come, and let me put something on it; you hurt 
yourself very badly." You will find the pain worse, 
the swelling worse, and a large dark bruise. 

Now try another, and let someone say, "All 
right; jump up! it didn't hurt you!'* and there is 
only a sensibility of a shock; no pain, no soreness, 
' and no bruise. The muscles were relaxed before 
injury was done the circulation, or perhaps the 
suggestion prevented the contraction, which was 
applied before the mind acted. Baseball and foot- 
ball players use this without realizing its workings. 
When one of their number sustains a severe blow, 
almost causing a fracture, a number gather around 
him, beat, rub, and manipulate him. and the dam- 
age is very light, if any, depending upon the amount 
and duration of the contraction. Take a person 
who is susceptible to pain, as we term it, but as it 
really is, who contracts readily, and you will find 
that the least blow and the slightest pinch leaves a 
black spot. Through fear they contract at the least 
injury. 

A lady who was taking osteopathic treatment 
from me, said: "Doctor, why is it that you pinch, 
twist and wring my flesh, and never leave a sore 
place nor mark, while the conductor who helps me 
from the car gently, always leaves the prints of his 
fingers in black spots for days ?" Her nature was 
very tense, and her sensitiveness great. The dif- 
ference was, I was the healer, and, of course, what 



94 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

I done was all right and could not hurt her; but 
the conductor, who was assisting her in danger, 
caused her to contract where he touched her. I 
have noticed in treating rheumatics, where I bent, 
twisted and wrung the painful limbs, they often 
say, Why if my wife, or my husband or nurse was 
to attempt that it would kill me; why they can't 
lay a hand on me without hurting me badly. Others 
have said, I can't do that myself. They in their 
mind see me as the magnetic healer, that the very 
touch is relief, that I am expected "o heal them; 
and while they held every muscle tight when the 
others attempted to handle them, through fear the 
muscles contracted, and to move them produced 
pain. With me they relaxed and had good circula- 
tion, and there could be no pain; besides, I had told 
them I would not hurt them. When a healer sug- 
gests in a right manner to his patient that he will 
drive out all pain by the magnetism in his hands, 
the minds of most patients accept the conditions as 
true; the involuntary muscles, which alone are re- 
sponsible for all pain, are relaxed, and do what he 
will there is no pain. It has often been said 
that the man who falls carelessly is not hurt, while 
one who makes an effort to catch himself is surely 
hurt. One falls without fear, and is relaxed; the 
other through fear is contracted, and sustains 
injury. Last week a rather delicate old lady fell 
from a porch, backwards, down a night of six steps. 
She held in her hand a pitcher of vinegar; while 
she turned over in the fall completely she saved the 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 95 

vinegar and pitcher, and was not hurt in the least. 
She had probably had her whole attention on the 
pitcher and contents and did not contract, and thus 
saved herself an injury. Had her mincl been on her 
own clanger, and her muscles contracted, she would 
have sustained severe injury. A bear is said to 
drop from a tree limp as a rag, unhurt. A drunk 
man is rarely ever hurt by a fall, unless a fracture 
or contusion is produced; because a drunk man has 
no fear. 

Under hypnosis, we by suggesting there will be 
no pain, no soreness, and no blood now, drive 
needles through the thick flesh of the hand, insert 
the long-blued steel hat pins in the mouth and 
force them through the cheek outward until they 
stick out past the ear, one in each cheek, with the 
heads crossing in front of the mouth. In this con- 
dition the subject was allowed to pass through the 
audience, and was examined by hundreds, returned 
to the stage, and the hat pins were withdrawn, all 
without pain, soreness, or the loss of one drop of 
blood. And what seemed to me most wonderful 
was, you could not see a mark where the pins 
passed through the cheek. The young man, after 
being awakened, said he knew what was being 
done but had no fear and felt no pain. Now, if 
the mind that built this body, and kept it in repair 
all those years, can when the reasoning mincl is 
out of the way, obviate the pain that otherwise 
would have been felt, hold the blood from flowing, 
allow the tissues to separate to let the pin pass 



96 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

without injury, and close it again when the pin is 
removed, why can we not trust that mind to care for 
this body again and not hinder it by the other mind 
that has more other matters to attend to than it 
can accomplish. In the absence of fear (which is 
of the conscious mind), our subjective mind runs 
the body; and yet we have been educated to fear 
ever since we could understand. We are to fear 
disease, exposure, evil, darkness, colds, weakness, 
overwork, the devil, and everything is fear, until it 
seems the devil has everything greased with fear 
and its attributes for our downfall. We are told 
that many of us would be thieves or murderers if 
the fear of detection and punishment did not deter 
us. This is the only place I have ever heard of it 
being beneficial. And then it is not a cure; it only 
acts as a check; besides, the only reason that we 
would want to steal is born of fear; we fear we are 
unable to acquire in an honorable way, or by our 
own efforts, we fear God's promises are weak, and 
we are moral cowards, and all the evils we acquire 
are through fear. 

Fear contracts our system and renders it unable 
to perform the duties which God intended it to per- 
form. This is what may be termed uneasy; then 
uneasy means not easy. Not means nothing, or a 
lack of; then we lack ease, or, as we say, are dis- 
eased. When we use this expression we imagine 
there is a something in us that is foreign to our 
bodies, when in reality it is only a condition. We 
say we catch cold, catch a fever, when there is 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 97 

nothing to catch. We are glad to see the ablest 
physicians of the world dropping the idea of catch- 
ing so many things; also of heredity. From the 
very causes that produce them it would be impos- 
sible for a contagion to become an epidemic or an 
epidemic a contagion. Thousands of women have 
consecrated their lives to God and gone into the 
yellow fever, the cholera, the black plague, the 
bubonic plague, and nursed the afflicted, handled 
the dead, and lived in the midst of death for years, 
and never felt the disease. They trusted in God; 
had no fear of death or disease, their hopes and 
desires were to do good to others; and where this 
good thought prevails there is no room for fear and 
the bad thoughts that follow. It is like the Rev. 
Sam Jones said of whiskey, "When religion goes 
in, red liquor goes out; they can't stay in the same 
hide." I knew a lady to die in five hours from the 
time she was exposed to cholera. She had come 
at her husband's request, not knowing what ailed 
him. The fright, when told it was cholera, almost 
overcame her. She had been in good health, and 
was from a country where they never had cholera. 
In five hours she was a corpse from cholera. 

HOPE AND DESIRE. 

We should encourage in ourselves, our children, 
and others, hope aud desire. I last Sunday heard a 
prominent minister say in his sermon there was 
nothing that we desired that we could not attain. 
Desire is always good and emanates from the soul. 



VO THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

As no fountain rises higher than its source, so 
desire can not be greater than the soul that created 
the desire, created us, kept us each day, and can fit 
us commensurate with that desire. 

We are sailing over life's seas without a ripple 
when we are actuated by desire; troubles and vexa- 
tions are not known, every nerve responds to the 
inspiration, and is tuned for melody; everything we 
see is good, as was proclaimed in the beginning. 
Even in a few minutes of enjoyment we see the 
things around us more pleasantly; the things that 
produced horror once are now bearable, and if this 
state was continued, the earth would soon become 
a paradise. But alas! when fear enters all the 
pleasurable things vanish, and a morbidness attends 
us in everything, until life has no pleasures; and 
the most enjoyable thing we have is to sit in soli- 
tude, and conjure up evil thoughts and imagine 
how wrong everything is, how out of tune all nature 
is but ourselves, when in fact we ourselves are the 
only thing out of harmony, and can not enjoy any- 
thing around us because we are not in harmony. 
Oh, what miserable lives those live who always 
find the weather at fault, that believe the adminis- 
tration is just robbing them, who are constantly 
being beaten in trade, who find all their neighbors 
bad but one, who they communicate the fact to; 
who, if a good is done them, or a smile or kind- 
ness bestowed upon them, always see a design to 
take advantage of them. This condition gives rise 
to church troubles, neighborhood troubles, county, 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 99 

state and national troubles, and is the entire cause 
of our labor troubles, which are caused by either 
capital or labor, or as is more often the case, by 
desiguing politicians or agitators, who live by 
shrewdness and upon the weakness of others. No 
politician ever made use of men's desires to create 
a wave. True, he calls attention to their legitimate 
needs and wants; but he always works on our fears, 
and excites hate within us to dominate us. We are 
always dominated by fear or the devil, and are 
actuated by love. If a good thing is presented to 
us we are actuated by the good it contains; the 
duty is then pleasant and we are not ashamed of it; 
but when we are caused to changed our views from 
fear, or are excited by hatred, then we are domi- 
nated and the work is not a work of love, but 
hatred or spite, and is characterized by the use of 
evil means to bring about this end. I will lay clown 
one absolutely infallible rule to guide you: When 
you are actuated by your desires you are always 
right; when you are dominated by fear (the per- 
sonal devil) or anything that is produced by it, you 
are always wrong. Beware of the man who comes 
to you in the guise of doing good, and attempts to 
influence you by telling you of the evils of another 
or the other side. He is either insincere or has 
another man's call to preach, and has in view the 
salary or the easiness of the way he can get a 
living. If any man comes to you for the purpose 
of doing good, lie is actuated by the desire to do 
good, and can give you a reason, as Paul says, for 

LofC. 



100 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

the hope that is in him. This reason is the true 
incentive for good. Let your motto ever be: "Do 
good for the sake of being good; not from the fear 
of evil or its punishments. The love children have 
for a parent or teacher from the fear of them, is as 
frail as a frost in the morning sun; while the love 
begotten by good or in return for love, is un- 
dying. 

Love is the principal attribute of desire. God 
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
son, that whosoever believed on Him should have 
everlasting life. God's love was actuated by His 
desire that men should have everlasting life. This 
created a love that knew no bounds — even to give 
His only son. 

Never curb a desire nor a hope, but trust it and 
it will ripen into fruition, and increase an hundred 
fold. Flee from fear; it can not give relief or bene- 
fit you in any manner, and is always followed by 
disaster and dire Tesults. Fear not only entails 
pain and disaster to the body, but like the 
boomerang, recoils with dire effects upon the mind 
that conceived it. 

The murderer and all evil doers find the mind 
hampered during the waking hours, and sleep is 
often impossible. Even when the tired bodies give 
way to sleep the mind is troubled with horrible 
dreams and they awake feeling that the saying 
"there is no rest for the wicked," is literally true. 

We fear the detection of our meanness or crime, 
we fear the punishment, we fear the opinion our 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 101 

friends will have of us, and our lives are burdened; 
verily, the way of the transgressor is hard. Let 
not anxiety deceive you for desire. Anxiety is a 
product of fear, and is a weakened condition of 
the mind. kk Be not anxious for the morrow wTiat 
you shall eat or what you shall drink or where- 
withal you shall be clothed." This does not mean 
we shall not prepare for the morrow; but strictly 
what it says, be not anxious. 

The Christian worker or the temperance worker, 
who has made an effort in his or her line, and be- 
comes anxious for the results, has failed to add to 
his diligence patience, and in 'his anxiety to accom- 
plish what he supposes should occur, he spoils 
even the good seed he has sown. Always remember 
that Paul may plant and Apolus may water, but it 
is God that giveth the increase, and wait patiently 
on the Lord. Noah preached one hundred and 
twenty years, without a single convert outside of 
his own household. Jonah got mad ''nigh unto 
death " because God did not destroy Ninevah. After 
the entire city had repented in sackcloth and ashes; 
the very thing Jonah had told them they must do 
or be destroyed. Jonah feared to go to Mnevah, 
and ran away because he feared they would repent 
at his preaching and Gocl would spare the city, and 
his prediction of evil would not be verified. He 
really preferred the calamity to their salvation. 

Fear of every nature and kind is an injury to 
us. It costs us material in both mind and body; 
and if its effects are not shown upon the soul, and 



102 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

there is no future punishment, the blessings in 
this life would be ample reward for following our 
desires. One of the most forcible illustrations of 
the effects of the mind contracting our system under 
fear is seen in the hair. The hair shaft or follicle, 
which every hair grows from, starts under the 
skin and has its origin in the blood. These follicles 
set at an angle or oblique with the surface or skin. 
At the lower end, and attached to each follicle, is a 
minute muscle, running oblique and in the direc- 
tion the hair lies. In case of severe fright or anger 
those muscles are contracted, drawing the lower 
end of the follicle directly under the hair where it 
passed through the skin, causing the hair to stand 
erect. Just think of anger and fear causing this 
wonderful mind to make our hair to stand on end. 
This may also be seen on the dog, or cat; during 
fright the hair stands on end. Again, when 
we feel a chill from cold or dampness, the same 
muscles contract over the body, and cause the fol- 
licle to push up and produce what we call pimples 
or goose flesh in the soft part of the skin. This 
contraction of the millions of muscles all over this 
body impedes circulation, causes congestion, and 
many kinds of pain and disease, which we call 
catching cold. When the pimples first appear, by 
dry warmth or friction, or even rapid exercise, we 
relax the muscles, and avert catching cold. I know 
persons who contract so readily that sudden fright 
causes the pimples all over their body. It is 
generally known that where cold is contracted it is 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 103 

from a change of temperature too rapidly; and that 
if we accustom ourselves gradually to a colder 
temperature, we are not so susceptible to colds. It 
shows conclusively that the suddenness or rapidity 
of the change is more effective than the intensity. 
Then we take cold in the summer time as readily 
as the winter, and contract worse. Truly, we must 
confess that the mind controls the body every way. 

THE FAULT OF THE AGE. 

The fault of the age is a mad endeavor 

To leap to heights that were made to climb; 

By a burst of strength, or a thought most clever, 
We plan to forestall and outwit time. 

We scorn to wait for the thing worth having; 

We want high noon at the day's dim dawn ; 
We find no pleasure in toiling and saving 

As our forefathers did in the old times gone. 

We force our roses before their season 

To bloom and blossom for us to wear; 
And then we wonder and ask the reason 

Why perfect buds are so few and rare. 

We crave the gain, but despise the getting; 

We want wealth not as reward but dower; 
And the strength that is wasted in useless fretting 

Would fell a forest or build a tower. 

To covet the prize, yet to shrink from the winning; 

To thirst for glory, yet fear to tight; 
Why, what can it lend to at last but sinning, 

To mental languor or moral blight ? 

Better the old slow way of striving, 

And counting small gains when the day is done, 

Than to use our force and our strength in contriving, 
And to grasp for pleasures we have not won. 

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



104 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

THE SUBJECTIVE MIND. 

The subjective mind is the faculty that builds 
our bodies, keeps them in repair, causes the heart 
to beat, our lungs to breathe, our digestive organs 
to act on the nourishments taken into the stomach, 
and our entire organism and the involuntary 
muscles are under its control. They are educated 
by frequent use in every way until they act without 
thought, or by reflex action. We call this habit, 
which is a good name; as by habitual use they are 
educated to do and act. If we use helps or stimulants, 
and neglect or discourage their use, then they fail to 
act. After we use a stimulant or help for a time 
we say we feel a need of it. This is only one of 
our actual needs that the reflex has failed to sup- 
ply, as it has been superceded by the stimulant. 
The subjective mind has access to the five senses 
(when not prevented by the conscious mind), also 
the will and the imagination. It is the recorder 
of every item of thought, word and deed; it is the 
creative power of the body; the I Am, The Soul. 
In our present condition we use the subjective mind 
unconsciously. Whether we ever used it entirely 
we do not know; but that it is unerring in its un- 
hampered state or operation, we are quite sine. It 
is well understood by all readers that our mind is 
a dualty, or, in other words, we have two minds. 
The conscious or reasoning mind is the one we 
use in our affairs, the mind that deals wholly 
with material things except that it influences the 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 105 

subconscious niiud during the waking state. The 
conscious mind reasons, and, as we have shown, 
often reasons falsely. We believe it to be the 
knowledge of good and evil, gained by disobedi- 
ence. (See the Bible account of eating the for- 
bidden fruit.) 

The objective mind uses the five senses, and has 
access to the memory, imagination and will, and 
during our waking state may control the subcon- 
scious mind, and often does to the injury of our 
bodies. 

Under hypnotism, the concious mind sleeps, or 
is in abeyance. The action of the functions of the 
body is then unimpeded, and are working properly. 
However, as we still the conscious mind we are 
brought in rapport with the. subjective mind, and 
may control it in every way, not objectionable to 
the subject in the waking state. The circulation 
may be stopped in one part of the body while it 
remains normal in the others. The body entire, or 
any part of the limbs, may be made rigid, and every 
muscle but the heart be rendered powerless, by the 
suggestion of the operator; pain may be dispelled 
or perfect anaesthesia- produced; the five senses may 
be diverted or changed by the operator by a word. 
In fact, it seems that the duties of the subconscious 
mind (soul) were the supervision of the physical 
body, for a life of pleasure, without a knowledge 
of pain or debility, until the conscious mind came 
upon the scene and took charge. Then entered fear 
and its endless wreckings. 



106 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

No wonder God said: "Since man has a knowl- 
edge of good and evil, now lest be' put forth his 
hand and eat of the tree of life also and live for- 
ever/' (And he was sent out of the garden.) What 
a heaven with man in his first state! What an earth 
if he lived always in his present state! 

THE DIFFEEENCE IN THE TWO MINDS. 

Passion is what the sun feels for the earth 
When harvests ripen into golden birth. 

Lust is the hot simoon whose burning breath 
Sweeps o'er the fields with devastating death. 

Passion is what God felt, the Holy one 
Who loved the world, so He begot His son. 

Lust is the impulse satan, peering in 

To Eden, had, when he taught Eve to sin. 

One sprang from light, and one from darkness grows! 
How dim the vision that coDfounds the two. 

— Selected. 

HOW TO HYPNOTIZE. 

There are so many ways to produce hypnosis 
that we will only give a few of those that will be 
best understood, and are most used. 

The first requisite is, the operator must have 
confidence in his ability to hypnotise, and must 
show it in his actions before his subject. Never say 
I will try, but I will. Seat your su bject comfortal th- 
in an ordinary chair (not a rocker): hands resting 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 107 

loosely on his knees, feet resting flatly on the floor, 
allow no one to interrupt by talking, laughing, or 
whispering, but have perfect quiet in the room, 
which should be understood before the subject is 
brought in. You will then say: "I am now going 
to hypnotise you for a short time, and will awaken 
you then. You need have no fear, as I will take 
care of you and not have you do anything unpleas- 
ant. Now, you need not look for anything to occur, 
as it will be just like when you go into natural 
sleep; there is nothing to see, knothing to know." 
You will advance to within three feet of your 
patient, raise the right forefinger, about two feet in 
front of the subject's eyes, and above them, and 
have him raise his eyes a little without raising the 
head. This produces a strain upon the nerves of 
the eyes. Now say in a firm, steady tone: "Look 
right at my finger steady; don't let your eyes leave 
it; don't notice anything about you, but just look 
quietly at my finger and soon the pupils of your 
eyes will dilate, then they will become watery, the 
eyelids will become very heavy, and you will find 
them winking nervously, then you will soon go to 
sleep. Now the pupil is dilating nicely, your eyes 
are becoming watery, and the lids are getting very 
heavy, they are closing down, and feel so v e r y 
h e a v xj , you c a n ' t hold them open, you just 
c a n ' t hold them open ;" (if necessary repeat the 
suggestion in a slow, drawn-out, sleepy manner) 
always looking into the eyes of the patient in a 
steady but not staring manner. Do not get excited 



108 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

nor iii a hurry. You will see the eyes of the patient 
closing down and they will have a blank, staring 
look, and if you will in the same positive manner 
say, "Now you will soon be asleep, you just can't 
keep awake,' 7 you will see the eyes of your subject 
turn upward and close, and he is asleep. Now say: 
"You are asleep, sound asleep, dead asleep: you 
can't open your^eyes," and your subject is ready for 
any suggestion you may wish to make. 

Any reasonable suggestion if given in a kind but 
positive manner will be acted upon in a perfectly 
natural manner, unless it be something which would 
be seriously objectionable to him in his waking 
state. In such, if you insist upon his doing, he will 
become sullen and if you insist too strongly he will 
awaken of his own volition. Never allow anyone 
to play pranks nor awaken your subject. If you 
wish anyone to speak to him, say: "Mrs. Jones 
wishes to speak to you; you can talk to her until I 
want you." The person introduced can then handle 
the subject the same as you, but in no case must 
anyone be allowed to awaken the subject but the 
one who put him to sleep. A careful adherence to 
this will save you much trouble. 

When you have your subject asleep, tell him 
there is no one in the room but you, and he then 
will neither hear nor see anyone, unless intro- 
duced to him as stated. Always be honest, and be 
very sure to be honorable with one under your con- 
trol. Remember you are thinking for him. and do 
not allow a question to be answered that might 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 109 

compromise him with anyone in the room or be 
told by anyone that would make trouble between 
him and others. Every one has many things that 
they would tell a friend and yet would not make 
public gossip of; and your subject might answer a 
question for you knowing there was no one in the 
room but you, that should not be repeated. Never 
ask nor allow a subject to answer anything of a 
private nature. At the first sitting a few minutes 
is long enough to be allowed to sleep, never longer 
than ten minutes. If you wish, you can have him 
asleep in one minute again, as he now knows there 
is no harm in it, and also how to relax readily. 
Now you will say to the subject: "I am going to 
wake you up; you are feeling as well as you ever 
felt in your life; you are perfectly rested; you 
have no pain, nothing to bother you; in fact, you 
are all right; (here, if the patient is under treat- 
ment or has any pain, say, 'your pain is all gone;' 
lay the hand on the seat of pain and say, 'all gone, 
perfectly well, no pain, headache all gone') now I 
will wake you up; when I count three you will be 
wide awake; all ready: one, two, three!" with a 
snap of the fingers or a clap of the hands, he is wide 
awake and all right. 

In case of your forgetting to awaken him he will 
sleep it off in from four to twelve hours, or in 
case of immediate danger, as an alarm of fire, he 
will awaken instantly. It is not advisable to give 
suggestions of pain or distressing experiences; 
though in cases of young men of light, easy, 



110 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

forgetting dispositions, there is no harm • from it, 
provided you remove the suggestion, or rather give 
the good suggestions, before waking them. 

Do not forget the all important principle: your 
suggestion of pleasure relaxes the subject, and 
nature is in full control, consequently all is well. 
A suggestion of trouble, pain, or fear, contracts the 
muscles governing the parts where the pain was 
suggested, and pain is the result of the contraction. 

I once saw a professor of hypnotism, who took 
a lady under his control after she had been hypno- 
tised by a lady hypnotist, who had turned the sub- 
ject over to him in the proper manner. After the 
subject had been passed to the clairvoyant degree 
and some experiments had, the professor proceeded 
in the proper manner to bring the subject out, and 
did awaken her. Her eyes opened with a maniacal 
stare, the muscles convulsed, and the lady said: 
" My God ! what is the matter with me } . " If he had 
been of an excitable nature, there might have been 
serious trouble. He, however, remained composed 
and told the lady who had first hypnotized her to 
place the lady under hypnosis, which she easily did. 
Then she gave the subject the good suggestions, 
not forgetting to suggest that she would not re- 
member anything that had occurred the previous 
time, then waking the subject. She opened her 
eyes, smiling, and in answer to the question how 
she felt, said all right. She had remembered nothing 
of the trouble, as she had been only partially re- 
stored to consciousness, by the wrong party. Allow 



THE INVOLUNTARY FOECES. Ill 

no one to awaken the subject but the one who puts 
them to sleep. Should anything occur you do not 
understand, never get rattled. You are the mind 
of both you and your subject, and must keep your- 
self in a rational way, and you will soon have 
things right. When you say "sleep" say it in a 
positive manner, and when you say "wake up" say 
it in the same positive way, and with the full con- 
fidence that it will be so, and you will have a knowl- 
edge of its being so by seeing the patient or 
subject, as the case may be, do just what you have 
suggested. All the faith 3^011 need is enough to 
believe a thing long enough to do as you are 
instructed, and then you will not need any faith; 
you will have a knowledge of it. To try a thing is 
of no use; you can never accomplish anything. 
When we usually say we will try, we mean we will 
go ahead and do anything in our power. Sam Jones 
says as long as a man is trying to do good the devil 
is not alarmed about him, but when a man resolves 
to do good and gets to work, the devil begins to get 
uneasy about him. We have too much trying; not 
a muscle responds when we try, for we can not 
/ deceive the subjective mind. The reason for this 
I is, our objective mind presents only actual facts, as 
\ it sees them, to the subjective mind, and the fact 
Vof trying is suggestive of doubt, and is not acted y 
\ppon by the forces controlling the body. 

A man says "I am going to try to quit the use of 
tobacco." What does this imply? It means, "I 
won't take a chew now, and if I am not pushed too 



112 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

hard by my appetite, I won't use any more." The 
result is, he has not placed one single suggestion 
upon the mind for action. Let your coachman 
come in and ask, "Do you want the carriage 
brought out?" You say "I will try to see if I do." 
Would you expect to see him drive up to the door 
soon? 

In the case of your trying to quit using tobacco, 
you have hung up the following notice in the room 
of the engineer: "If anything should happen that 
I would not need your assistance, I will just let this 
machine run on chance, and yet I am aware that 
you are the only power on earth that can run it." 
Well, the system runs on in the way we have it set 
to run; the appetite or habit of using is piling up, 
until we just feel we must have the tobacco. Then 
we say, "Well, I just can't quit." Xow, had we 
obtained full consent of our conscious mind to quit 
the use of tobacco, then the signal to the engineer 
would have been: "All future use of tobacco has 
been abandoned; govern your machine accord- 
ingly" The engineer, or subconscious mind, would 
then adjust every part of the system to conform to 
the new regulations. This is done in the case of 
any stimulant, brace, prop, help, physic, or any- 
thing. When your judgment says stop their use, or 
believes any treatment or use has placed us beyond 
their use, or need of them, you will surely not need 
them. I have tried both ways in my own case and 
know whereof I speak. I have cured the tobacco, 
morphine and liquor habit on many patients by the 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 113 

same rule, and know it will work. Under hypno- 
tism the orders are made direct by the operator to 
the subjective mind of the subject, and may be 
made positive. "You will never need morphine 
again; you can't use it; you will not feel any incon- 
venience from it; you will not have any pain; no 
worry; you will feel all right ;" and by repeating 
the suggestion a few times at each sitting, there 
will be no use for the drug from the first treatment, 
but we continue to strengthen the suggestion, until 
the habit or reflex action has been overcome. The 
mincl of the subject could have done the same 
thing, if it had given full consent. But we have 
heard so much of weak nerves, weak wills, and 
nicotine, morphine and whiskey in the system, all 
of which we believe; that we are afraid to trust 
the God we profess to put our trust in, and we go on 
trusting the devil, and in the cover of our weakness, 
go on using a thing that we know kills the body, 
have the Bible for it that it damns the soul, and 
evidences all around us of the evils it entails upon 
others by our using. 

The nicotine is ail in the head. I have quit the 
use of tobacco after I had used it fifteen years, and 
to excess, and was a perfect slave to it. I had tried 
to quit several times, only to want it the worse 
each day. But when I got the full consent of my 
conscious mincl to quit, I never even wanted to- 
bacco for one minute, and had it in my pocket and 
at the office and at home. I felt no worn 7 , no 
uneasiness, simply felt no effects whatever. I have 



114 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

tried it on others for liquor and morphine with like 
results, and am not afraid to say the drug is in the 
mind, and was placed there as we place wrinkles, 
character lines, sorrow and sadness, by the. habit of 
doing them, and all we need to remove them is to 
trust our nerves and quit. 

If you think the mind that God placed to run 
this machine; and that has run it right, is not strong 
enough to cope with the liquor mind; this subcon- 
scious mind, the soul, is in a mighty poor condition 
to return to God who gave it. But such is not the 
case; if it were, God would hold you for its destruc- 
tion. That soul is just as good and just as strong 
and just as ready to build, control, and run this 
body, as when it was placed there; but you have 
educated the reason to think different and you 
would rather allow it to stand that way aud suffer 
than try what thousands have found relief from, 
just because it is not something you have been used 
to. May God speed the day when men will be 
honest enough to at least try a thing long enough 
to test it, when they have been told by others who 
are honest, that they had been cured by the same 
method. You need not go from your neighborhood 
to find men who stopped the use of whiskey or 
tobacco, after using it for years, and with no helps 
of any kind. 

Do you admit you cannot do as well as they I 
Have you not the sense ? or are you not just a trifle 
weak in your faith in God ? 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 115 

SURGERY. 

Surgery is a special branch in ministering to the 
afflicted. It has been vastly improved upon in late 
years, both in range and character, or quality of 
operation. There perhaps will never be a time 
when the demands for surgery will cease. Yet, the 
use of the knife has been too recklessly indulged 
in. We have today a class of physicians who do 
not hesitate to recommend an operation, where 
there is no use of it in the first place, and often 
great danger in the use of it. Generally, that class 
of men have an arrangement with a man in the 
city for half the fee and think it a good way to get 
a patient off their hands whom they cannot cure. 

I have known several to have an eye taken out 
to save the other, and finally lose both. Daily 
women are being operated upon for some female 
trouble, who would have been far better off phys- 
ically and financially had they not allowed the 
operation. We have cured many cases of female 
trouble, piles, appendicitis, peritonitis, tumors of 
various names and kinds both internal and exter- 
nal (we give the doctors' diagnosis in naming the 
above), all by the magnetic method, and never lost 
a case nor injured a person, not even to give pain. 
Be sure you are consulting an honorable physician 
and then allow the use of the knife sparingly, ex- 
cept in amputations and inflicted wounds, and even 
then many amputations are made where the part 
could have been saved. 



116 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

SOME GOOD METHODS OF RELAXATION. 

By practice, relaxation may be accomplished at 
will. The vapor bath, the hot bath, and also a 
warm pack, causes relaxation. I have known a 
serious case of typhoid fever being broken by wrap- 
ping the patient in a warm, wet sheet; a child in 
paroxysms of coughing from whooping cough was 
relieved and went to sleep in ten minutes by 
placing a handkerchief over the naked shoulders 
and blowing the hot breath upon it by putting the 
mouth upon the handkerchief. • The nerves from 
the brachial plexus reached the contraction direct, 
and the muscles relaxed. The same thing was done 
in the bath and with the pack. When the con- 
traction is corrected in any way the normal con- 
dition has been restored. A large boil or carbuncle 
upon the inside of the wrist, that had kept a man 
from sleep for three days and nights, was found to 
be caused by a contracted muscle near the 
shoulder. Relaxation was produced, and the pain 
was lessened and the boil disappeared in three days, 
although it had been drawn nearly to a head by the 
application of fat meat. This human volcano was 
caused by the contraction holding the blood there 
and it was trying to force its way out. A relaxation 
set things right, and the boil was absorbed by the 
system, that had been released. Tn fevers, by rub- 
bing the patient well all over the surface, not 
merely charing the surface but working the flesh 
with the hand, relaxation sets the circulation free, 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 117 

reaction follows, and the patient recovers. The act 
of taking a cold bath is not generally understood. 
When we come in contact with the cold water the 
surface muscles contract, and as it is merely reflex 
and the act of bathing is pleasant, we relax, and 
the reaction sets in, or rather the blood acts again 
to the surface, and we are warm again. However, 
we, if we remain too long in the water, thwart 
reaction and we have a chill, and are injured by the 
bath. 

BUSINESS SUCCESS. 

The saying is attributed to Davy Crocket, "Be 
sure you are right and then go ahead." This is a 
good maxim, but must be taken in its fullest sense. 
A man may be doing a right thing, and he be wrong 
himself. He may be in a legitimate business, in a 
good location, and not succeed because the wrong 
is in him. We need not refer to dishonesty for the 
evil, nor need he be discourteous or not obliging to 
customers. A salesman may have an article to 
offer customers, equal if not better than his com- 
petitor, and both have an equal opportunity to sell 
a customer. The first named may be feeling under 
the weather, as w T e say; something at home or in 
his business affairs, or the proprietor may have 
placed his bodily functions at a disadvantage, by 
what he said to him in a rough way. Unconsciously 
the customer reads in his countenance something 
repulsive, and he fails to make the sale. The next 
man has had smooth business all day and feels 



118 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

good, and what is better, he looks it; he makes the 
sale without an effort. The first was contracted by 
some bad suggestion, or something wrong, and, as 
we say, he was worried, and worry is always wrong, 
and he failed. The next man was feeling good, 
the right thing had relaxed his system, and he was 
feeling good with himself and everybody else, and 
he made the sale with ease. 

I know from experience, that when the pro- 
prietor of the business has given a salesman cause 
to reverse his natural feelings, that salesman is 
unfit to treat with the patrons of the house until 
by some means his contracted condition has been 
relieved. This fact must be borne in mind: that a 
suggestion may be given by a look, gesture, or in 
any manner that we cau impress the mind, and so 
the mind accepts it. It is the same no matter how 
it was placed there, or whether it be true or false. 
The suggestion acts in all things as in the cure of 
disease or producing disease. Whatever impression 
the mind gets, it acts upon; as it is the mind that 
sets, prepares, or attunes the system, after the man- 
ner of the suggestion it receives. 

I have as an experiment, in opening goods and 
marking them, selected a certain piece of goods 
that I knew to be of greater price than value. I 
would say to my salespeople: ''Here is an article 
that I bought at a bargain, and we will use it as a 
leader; mark it at such a price:" (at the same time 
I knew the profit was good.) This piece would in- 
variably sell first. I have repeated the test on 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 119 

goods of better value than the cost, or that were 
bought at a bargain, with the suggestion: "Now 
here is a piece of goods that cost too much; we, 
however, must make an effort to sell it first." I 
would then mark the goods at an extremely low 
figure, and always found the sale of it dragging. I 
have even divided a piece of goods in halves, or in 
other words, cut it in two; marked one higher and 
one lower than the regular selling price, with the 
suggestion that "the highest-priced piece was a rare 
bargain, and the lower-priced was rather high for 
the quality, but maybe we can sell it to persons 
that are not able to buy a good article." In every 
case the higher-priced goods went first, although it 
was identically the same as the low-priced, both in 
fabric and color. And in one case, a salesman sold 
off of the high-priced piece to the wife of one of 
the partners, when both halves lay before her, and 
was carefully scrutinized before buying. I may 
add this lady was brought up in this same line of 
trade, and always made her own selections, and 
used her own judgment (as she said), regardless of 
what the salesman said. Although she was what 
we call a strong-miuded woman, and a good busi- 
ness woman, the reader can readily see whether 
the judgment she used was all her own, or was 
diluted with the judgment of the salesman, who 
spoke and acted upon what had been suggested to 
him, and was believed by him. So much for the 
reasoning mind. 

Politicians unconsciously use the same thing. 



120 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

A solid principle will be laid down as a start, which 
is usually an assumption. Then they will build, 
enlarge, and dilate with highly painted pictures 
that is best suited to the business or calling of 
their hearers, who are carried away by the picture 
of the disaster that would follow in such a case, 
never even thinking that it was founded upon a 
supposition that would or perhaps could not occur: 
and they have succeeded in placing a false sugges- 
tion, that will serve their purpose as well as if it 
were an assured fact. For example, we will give 
one in line with those used by all parties: 

"What if the President, under his Imperialistic 
policy, should follow up our difficulties in China by 
declaring war, and dismembering the empire. With 
all nations against us, our armies scattered all over 
the world, our coasts undefended, we would fall an 
easy prey to the powers on this and other conti- 
nents, and with our foreign element among us to 
run riot, burn and pillage, our brave men would be 
slaughtered abroad, our cherished institutions, the 
result of over one hundred years of honest toil, 
would be destroyed; our homes made dosolate, or 
occupied by another; our cherished emblem — the 
stars and stripes — be torn from the pinnacle it has 
been placed by the blood of the bravest men of our 
land. 1 say, gentlemen, who of you care to, yea ! 
who dare to cast his ballot on tomorrow for the 
party that this man represents ?" 

While those dire forebodings woiOd likely 
be the result of such action, and are thus truly 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 121 

pictured, there is not a single citizen of this land 
who would give the first statement or supposition 
any consideration if made alone; and yet such 
statements are made and caitooned by all political 
' parties. 

We begin with a suggestion or a supposition to 
attract the mind, and when we get undivided at- 
tention (or, as hypnotists say, en rapport), they are 
hypnotized, and swallow the rest; and if the mind 
is not relaxed, they act upon it, and justify them- 
selves in their action, from the fact that it was a 
public utterance and dare not be made by a respon- 
sible party; when the fact was /there had been no 
charges made, but only supposing he should. 

Always keep your rierves and those of your help 
in harmony. Never allow them to become tense 
nor weak. If by your unnatural condition you ques- 
tion your ability, your customer reads it; if you fear 
what you offer a customer is not of good value, you 
show it; if you fear the big advertisement your 
competitor has out, you show it; if the proprietor 
has caused you to feel that he questions your abil- 
ity to sell goods, or that you can't get prices, or 
that you sell the easy-selling goods and leave the 
hard sellers on the shelf, you show it in your ex- 
pression; if he said you were not pleasant with 
your customer?, try as you may to be pleasant and 
you fail to impress. But if he has left the impres- 
sion that you were doing to suit him, that you 
pleased your customers, that your actions were in 
every way satisfactory: your customer uncon- 



122 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

sciously reads it at sight, and yon not only have 
good sales, but pleasant customers. Take what we 
call an old, hard, long-winded customer, that every- 
body tries to be very busy when she comes in the 
house. Meet her when you are crowned with a 
successful trade, and you will find her pleasant and 
a fair customer; when in your bad mood she sees 
the wrong picture on your face, and is after all only 
one of us that is easily contracted. Instantly her 
feelings (which are always sticking out) are reversed, 
and you have made her a troublesome customer. 
When her involuntary muscles are contracted, she 
has no regard for your time, and no inclination to 
spend anything with you but her time. 

The same rule works in the school room, the 
factory, and every where we look; whether you are 
working for wages, superintending others, or assist- 
ing as a partner; whether you are doing for others 
or teaching a child for his own bene tit; whether 
giving or receiving. "A kind answer turneth away 
wrath;" "evil communications corrupt good man- 
ners" in yourself. 

A lady whom I had cured of afflictions of years 
standing, by magnetic healing, some time ago wrote 
me; "Dear doctor, having such unbounded faith in 
your abilities, I write you to say my business has 
been so bad, and everything going against me, that 
I wish you to send me absent treatment for business 
success. I see Helen Willman and others give it, 
and I am sure you can do what others can.'' She 
stated that the hours 7 o'clock a. m. and 9 o'clock 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 128 

p. m. would be the most convenient for her. I sent 
the treatment as I would have done for disease, in 
accordance with the facts governing us as herein 
laid down. This week she was in our city and 
called to say that from the very first day her busi- 
ness had been satisfactory; that had I arranged 
with her patrons to do as she wished, it would not 
have been better; and further remarked, "It marks 
a happy era in my life." Instead of business being 
better for her, she was better for business. 

''Yes," you will say "but this man has adver- 
tised the advantage he has by buying in such large 
quantities and paying cash, and he advertises very 
largely; according to your own theory people will 
believe that." Well, many will go there and the 
advertisement has its effect; but some will undoubt- 
edly come to you if you give fair treatment, and 
when they do, clo not drive them away by allowing 
the sign on your face to read: "Yes, that big adver- 
tisement of my competitor is true;" or in your 
greetings show that you are feeling weak, or say, 
"Well, business is very dull; that big clearing sale 
is catching all the cash trade." People are sure to 
take the suggestion that if everybody goes there 
who have the money, there is some reason for it, 
and they meander round to your competitor, on 
your own suggestion. I have heard merchants, 
who had regular customers that paid their bills 
every month (a very good class of trade, if they 
actually pay), say to a customer: "Those clearing 
sales or auction sales hurt business badly; many of 



124 T HE ^VOLUNTARY FORCES. 

our credit customers go around there and spend 
their cash and expect us to wait on them thirty- 
days." Here you leave two bad suggestions: One, 
that if so many do that, there is some reason for 
their doing so; the other, that you think you have 
bought the right to make them trade with you by 
crediting them; and both militate against your 
business. 

Take the reading of the 37th Psalm, "Fret not 
thyself about evil doers, nor him who bringeth evil 
devices to pass," etc., and finally, fret not thyself in 
any wise. Here you have an infallible rule, a God- 
given rule; use it, and if you do it patiently, just so 
sure you will have the increase. 

You can not have those thoughts on your mind 
without their showing on your expression; you can 
not have a good opinion of your wares if you allow 
the other man's suggestion to effect you: you can 
not make a good impression on your customer of 
your honesty, your ability to supply his wants, as 
w T ell as others can; or that your wares are the best 
values, unless you believe it yourself: and as the 
hypnotist says, you must take the suggestion your- 
self if you would have others take it. Like the 
good comedian, you must feel what you are acting 
to make it real. 

A GOOD AND CHEAP RHEUMATIC CURE. 

Many years ago, in the early settlement of 
Miller count} 7 , Missouri, there lived an old man 
named Manning. He had been for years a cripple 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 125 

from rheumatism, and could do no work only as 
he could hobble around on his cratches. The old 
man was energetic and busied himself whenever it 
was possible. One day he had gone quite a distance 
to where his cattle were grazing in the woods, and 
carried a little salt in a sack swung over his 
shoulder. After salting the cattle, he sat down on 
a log to rest. His attention was attracted to an 
unusual noise, and looking behind him he saw a 
large bear coming down the hill towards him. The 
bear had probably been driven in his direction with- 
out a knowledge of his presence. Be that as it 
may. The old man, without even thinking of his 
crutches, had business in the direction of home, 
whither he rapidly wended his way. He reached 
home in a very tired and exhausted condition, but 
his rheumatism had disappeared entirely and never- 
more troubled him, though he lived many years 
after.* A rheumatic sufferer will say, "Yes, but he 
was scared; he had an incentive; and I have not. 
I can not stand the pain it would occasion, nor 
make up my mind to punish myself that way/ 7 
There is the trouble with the reasoning mind. We 
do not always reason as well as we know. Mr. 
Manning had resoning faculties, and if he had taken 
time to have used them, he could have said: "Per- 
haps the bear won't see me; or the bear may not 
know that I am here; or it is no use to try to 
outrun the bear in my condition; 7 ' or he could have 
reasoned as you are now reasoning about your dis- 
ease: "I will just sit still and allow the bear to eat 



126 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

me rather than punish myself by moving, when I 
have been unable for years to get about only in my 
slow way." Do you suppose the running either 
hurt him or cured him ? No ! His mind was on 
his danger, and as President Cleveland remarked, 
"it was the condition that confronted him." His 
mind was away from his pain, the muscles relaxed, 
(and as Dickens' Chuzzlewit would say, "naturally 
enough") and by reflex action the muscles re- 
sponded to the initiative and carried the old man 
home. Anyone who could allow himself to believe 
there would be no pain, and thereby relax his con- 
tracted muscles, would then have a knowledge of 
it. But we can not do it long enough to try. One 
thing we can do, we can take one step without 
killing us, and the next will be much easier, and 
so on until we have knowledge of the truth and by 
fair exercise, a few clays will eradicate all pain. 
But to sit and hold every muscle tight, we cause 
the involuntary muscles to draw up and our condi- 
tion grows hourly worse; the pent up circulation 
causes swelling and* pain; the blood becomes im- 
pure from its stagnation, and the whole system is 
wrong, as the vehicle that bears the nourishment 
through the system is impure, and we cry "uric acid 
in the blood." 

THE BRAIN. 

Steele in his physiology says we have two brains; 
also that the cerebrum or upper brain is the center 
of intelligence; that in man the cerebrum is larger 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 127 

proportionately than in animals; that the more 
intelligent the animal, the larger the cerebrum. 
This, we think, fully accounts for the reasoning 
faculties or conscious mind. He also says the 
cerebellum or lower brain is the center for the 
control of the involuntary forces. H. Charlton Bas- 
tian, in his works on Paralysis from Brain Disease, 
says: "The exact nature of the functions of the 
cerebellum, is one of those problems concerning 
which there is no unanimity of opinion among 
physiologists; but we can safely say it has no inde- 
pendent function either in the province of mind 
or motility.' 7 In other words, he means it is the seat 
of the subjective mind, and was not independent, 
as the objective mind can control it in impressions 
of mind and in our movements. 

Had he known hypnotism, he could have seen 
this same mind located in the cerebellum, use the 
five senses, and motary muscles as well, and with- 
out an error, if the operator does not pervert them. 
Bastian further says: "That there is an habitual 
community of action between the spinal cord and 
cerebellum is doubted by none." We all know that 
down the spinal cord is located the nerve centres 
or plexus that all the functions of the body are 
subservient to. From all this, which is eminent 
and admitted medical authority, we must admit 
that the subjective mind is the creative faculty, and 
furnishes, builds, and destroys the temple. If left 
to itself, will build aright; under the influence of 
the reasoning mind, may be made to build wrongly 



128 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

or tear down. Bastian further says: ''The action 
of the cerebrum seems to be primary while that of 
the cerebellum is secondary or subordinate.'' Here 
again hypnosis gives a solution. In the waking 
state the reasoning mind (cerebrum) is primary and 
subordinates the subjective mind; but in hypnosis 
or in natural sleep, the subjective mind (cere- 
bellum) acts without let or hindrance. We build 
and rest best when asleep, both natural and hyp- 
notic, and the sounder the sle.ep the better we rest 
(which is our way of speaking of building up). 
Steele's physiology says: "Pain, strictly speaking, 
is not in any organ, but in the mind, since only 
that can feel." All physicians admit Steele is 
authority, and our public schools have adopted it 
as a proper study for our children. But when a 
magnetic healer refers to these things, doctors scoff 
at the idea, and tell you we are insinuating your 
mind is weak. When a nerve sends or brings news 
to the brain of an injury, the brain refers the pain 
to the end of the nerve. If the ulner nerve (or 
funny bone) be struck, the pain is in the third and 
fourth fingers. Long after a limb has been ampu- 
tated, pain will still be felt in it, as if it still formed 
part of the body. In the last named instance there 
can be no pain in the limb, as it has long since 
mingled with the dust or been burned: and if the 
condition of the limb was such that it felt the pain. 
you still admit more mind force than we. as the 
limb may be miles from the person who thinks he 
feels pain in the limb which is no longer a part 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 129 

of his person. Steele says the injury to the stump 
is referred to the point where the nerve formerly 
led. In this we must take issue with the gentle- 
man. In most cases there has been no injury to 
the stump; and where a man feels something be- 
tween the toes of a foot tha 1 : has been amputated 
five years, as I have been told by men they had, 
then no such feeling could be imparted to the 
stump, only by the mind; for if such was the case 
that the mind could make such a woeful mistake, 
then a grain of corn in the shoe might be mistaken 
for a cockleburr above the knee, or a pin thrust 
above the knee might be suspected as a tack in the 
shoe. Often I have known men who had lost a leg 
to feel something between the toes of that foot, 
and in case of an arm, between the fingers. I know 
a man who has worn a wooden leg ten years, who 
tells me w r hen the remaining foot becomes cold, 
both are cold, and must be warmed, which is posi- 
tive evidence that it is all in the mind. A few clays 
since I was treating a gentleman who had, had 
two fingers amputated on the right hand. He sud- 
denly raised his left hand and attempted to scratch 
one of the fingers which were gone. He said: 
"Well, I thought my forefinger was itchiug near 
the nail, and I have had no finger there for three 
years." I am informed by a man living on Broad- 
way, in Hannibal, Missouri, whose foot has been 
amputated five years, that for a long time he had 
pain, seemingly in the missing foot, that at times 
gave him great misery. It was suggested to him 



130 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

by someone that the foot had been buried in a 
wrong position. The foot was taken up and buried 
in a different position, he being informed of the 
fact, and has never been troubled in that foot again. 
This condition may have been the result of his con- 
dition when the operation was performed. Under 
chloroform the sensibilities were deadened and the 
mind received no impression of what had been 
done, but retained the impression of pain the in- 
jured foot had been causing. When the suggestion 
of the foot not being properly placed in burial was 
given him, and accepted by the mind, and he had 
the assurance of its being placed in the proper 
position and reinterred, it was satisfied with the 
remecty, and the impression of pain was removed 
or replaced by the better one, of ease. Steele says: 
"Here lies the control exercised by the brain over 
all the vital organs; every organ responds to the 
changing moods'" and he cites many instances, 
some of which we will relate. He says the man 
who is given to violent outbursts of anger, is sure 
to experience a rapid change of the physical organs, 
in case he does not die in a fit of anger. Death 
under such circumstances is of frequent occurrence* 
and cites Sylla, Valentina, Nerva, Isabea, of Bavaria, 
as all dying in consequence of an excess of passion, 
and adds: "The medical annals of our own time 
recount many instances of fatal effects, following 
the violent brain disturbances, caused by anger. ,, 
He says: "The symptoms are usually pulmonary 
or cerebral congestion. As a rule the passions of 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 131 

hate and anger deteriorate the constitution by 
slow but sure degrees.' 7 How then, do we explain 
the morbid phenomenon which have their origin in 
misplaced affection and disappointed ambition, in 
hatred, or in anger, which culminates in serious 
chronic maladies, or in death and suicides? They 
all start from an impairment of the cerebro spinal 
centres. The continual excitation of these by ever 
present emotions determines a paralysis of the cen- 
tral nerve substance, and thus effects its connec- 
tions with the nerves, extending out to the various 
organs. * These organs then, from a lack of sup- 
port, degenerate by degrees, and soon all the great 
functions of the body are compromised; the heart 
and lungs cease to act with their normal rythm; 
the circulation grows languid and irregular, appe- 
tite disappears, the general disturbance of nutrition 
and secretion is attended with a fall of bodily 
temperature, and anemia; the mind soon becomes 
impaired, and the person soon dies, or makes way 
with his life. 

How easy it is to understand how this mind 
is responsible for our ills, and the building up of 
our bodies, when we look into our past expe- 
rience for the effect certain conditions of mind pro- 
duced in us; and when we take the experience of 
the men who lay the foundation for the practice of 
medicine, surgery, and rules of health; and who 
formulate the experiences of all their investiga- 
tions and research, for two thousand years, into a 
manual for the instruction of our children, that 



132 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

they may profit by our experience and avoid our 
errors; and there find such an abundance of undis- 
puted evidence of the positive control of the body 
by the mind; and that the mind alone can resolve 
any nourishment into material for the building of 
our minds and bodies, and that the mind can deny 
and prevent any and all organs from even taking 
this food when we have placed it in the stomach, 
and even make this same nourishment a burden to 
the organs: then we should as rational beings turn 
our attention to keeping the mind in proper con- 
dition, and allow the germ, the bacilli, and other 
epidemics and contagions to care for themselves; 
which would save the trouble of vast amounts of 
time and expense in securing lymphs, and various 
antidotes; and would save the lives of those we 
kill in experimenting to discover the remedy: and 
further, without mentioning the millions of dollars 
we annually spend for remedies, we w T ould enjoy 
this one great blessing: every person would have 
the preventative and the cure with him at home, in 
city and country, in any part of this wide world, 
by day or night it is at hand and his for the using, 
without danger of careless prescription! st or wrong 
label: it matters not about the diagnosing of the 
disease, for it is for the healing of all nations. 

There is no wonder that Steele is able to show 
the collapse. A nerve continually contracted must 
give way. Even timbers, wires, ropes, and all inani- 
mate things, give way under excessive ami contin- 
uous strain. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 138 

A sj^stem of contraction and relaxation at regu- 
lar intervals preserves health; regular rest of mind 
and body, is conducive of health; we labor by con- 
traction of any muscle, even the heart; we rest (or 
build up) by relaxation in any muscle; a fully re- 
laxed condition of mind and body gives perfect rest, 
or allows nature to make full repairs; and is fol- 
lowed by health and happiness: while continuous 
fear, worry, hatred, anger, and evil forebodings, 
tears down the structure and entails misery, pain, 
and death. 

Ferdinand Papilon, another recognized authority, 
says the digestion is completely subjected to the 
influence of the moral and intellectual state. 
Where the brain is worried, the appetite is almost 
gone. There is nowhere perfect health, or perfect 
rest, save when the passions are well regulated, 
harmonized and equipoised. Moral temperance is 
as essential and as indispensable to health or hap- 
piness as is physical temperance. If you desire 
your circulation pure, your respiration good, your 
digestion regular, your appetite good, your sleep 
sound with perfect rest; in fact, if you would be 
happy with long life, avoid all emotions that are 
over-strong, all pleasures that are too intense, and 
meet the inevitable of life with a resigned soul. 
Always have some pleasant occupation for the 
mind. Diversion is more exhilerating, if not too 
intense, as by changing we avoid fixing habits or 
wearing a groove, that we find hard to get out of. 
Someone has said, " An idle brain is the devil's 



134 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

"workshop." It would not have detracted from the 
truth, and would have been more conclusive if he 
had said: "The mind that looks back and broods 
over the past, or looks forward in search of probable 
trouble, is the devil himself." If God that destroyed 
Sodom had petrified Mrs. Lot, without giving the 
warning that he did give, not to look back upon the 
wickedness, that had "vexed that righteous man's 
soul from day to day," until he by its contact had 
become accustomed or hardened, we should still 
have commended the act. It is in keeping with 
our laws, punishment of evil doers, and for the pre- 
vention of crime. 

The savior said: "Whosoever putteth his hand 
to the plow and turneth back is unfit for the king- 
dom.' ' 

KEEP OUT OF THE PAST. 

Keep out of the pa"t: for its highways 

Are damp with malarial gloom; 
Its gardens are sear and its forests are drear, 

And everywhere moulders a tomb; 
Who seeks to regain its lost pleasures, 

Finds only a rose turned to dust; 
Audits storehouse of wonderful treasures 

Are covered and coated with rust. 

Keep out of the past: it is haunted, 

He who in its avenues grope 
Shall tind there the ghost of a joy prized the most, 

And a skeleton throng of dead hopes. 
In place of its beautiful rivers 

Are pools that are stagnant with slime; 
And the graves gleaming white with a phosphorous 
light 

Hide dreams that were slain in their prime. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 185 

Keep out of the past: it is lonely 

And barren and bleak to the view; 
Its fires have grown cold, and its stories are old — 

Turn, turn to the present — the new: 
Today leads you up to the hilltops 

That are kissed by the radiant sun; 
Today shows no tomb, life's hopes are in bloom, 

And today holds a prize to be won. 

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 



SUGGESTION. 

A suggestion, as used in suggestive therapeutics, 
magnetic healing, mental science, and hypnotism, 
means the act of impressing the subconscious mind 
with an idea. A plain statement of a fact is not 
always accepted. The reasoning mind often rejects 
it from the fact of its having been used to accom- 
plishing a thing by an entirely different way, and 
cannot see how the thing you suggest could accom- 
plish it. For example: A man has been used to 
taking calomel or potophollin pills for physics. You 
tell him the bread pill (that the doctor gives in 
suggestive therapeutics) will have the same effect, 
and he can not believe it. His mind reasons thus: 
' 'I know the medicine will act surely and vigor- 
ously, as I have tried it repeatedly; I also know 
that bread does not, as I use it daily as food, and if 
the small pill would have the effect you say it will, 
then the amount I eat every meal would kill me." 
Theoretically speaking, this is conclusive evidence. 
But he has not considered the cause of action, but 
accepted the results as positive evidence of the 



136 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

power of the drug. In many instances this is cor- 
rect, as we have shown that the poison, or the 
intoxicating effect of a thing, is abortive in its 
effects; that is, it weakens and compells the relaxa- 
tion, and the natural effects follow. If this same 
mind had been shown the effect of our subjective 
mind in the control of the physical body, and have 
seen the results from the mind's accepting a thing, 
it would then have been willing to allow the sug- 
gestion to have passed inspection, and would be 
acted upon by the mind that always supervises the 
body. 

A suggestion may be placed in many ways; in 
fact in any way you may be able to impress the 
mind. If an assertion is made in a forceful man- 
ner, most minds will accept it; if made by the 
adroit use of language, many will accept; if you 
will suggest a thing in strict confidence (sub rosa) 
the skeptical will act upon it quicker than any 
other class. I define the skeptic, or man who just 
refuses to believe anything until everyone else has 
adopted it, as a man who has no opinion of his own 
and is' not willing to believe a thing worth proving 
until the majority of others have adopted it. This 
class, it will readily be seen, would effectually pro- 
hibit the advancement of science, art, temperance, 
religion, and civilization. 

The saying, "I am a Missourian. you must show 
me," is boasted of by persons who are incredulous 
to everybody's statements but their own: sbows a 
weak mind governed by a strong prejudice. To 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 137 ' 

return to the subject: Someone is making a state- 
ment. You wink significantly to another, and you 
have placed a suggestion that the man is lying, or 
is soft for even believing what he is telling. Now. 
had you, after the statement was made, given your 
reasons for not believing it, probably the statement 
would have been the more forceful, and have been 
believed; but the insinuating wink, or doubtful 
shake of the head, will catch the very class of per- 
sons that think they have an opinion of their own. 
Such people are perhaps honest, but they are mis- 
taking their ignorance of a thing for their opinion, 
and while that class of people amount to nothing 
to the world but a filling in, they nevertheless by 
their contrary suggestion cause much trouble and 
pain. The suggestion that a medicine, mineral 
water, or anything will cure, wears off as it be- 
comes common to us; hence, we are always 
changing the remedies, and their names, as well as 
the manner of expressing the kind of disease. I 
distinctly recollect when we had liver complaint, 
kidney complaint, and so forth; now it is kidney 
disease, liver disease, or still later: kidney trouble. 
We must admit the kidney complaint was the proper 
term, as the complaint was the chief source, while 
the latest (kidney trouble) is also very significant. 

We may also get a good suggestion that a rem- 
edy will cure us, from the fact that it has cured 
another of a similar complaint. We accept a sug- 
gestion that we can be cured by one who can tell 
us the manner in which our disease acts, when we feel 



138 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

certain pains worst, where the pain is felt, and 
even by describing the feeling or kind of pain we 
feel. We might give a volume of ways to place a 
suggestion and the different means required by 
different dispositions; but anyone who will consider 
what he wishes to impress, and remember there is 
no such thing as convincing a person against his 
will, can readily discern a way to get behind a con- 
trary suggestion, which is to be accomplished by a 
statement in a manner that admits of the other 
using it as his own idea and not as something that 
was forced upon him. 

It is like the monte man or card shark; he 
always allows you to draw your own card, which 
assures you a chance to win(0, but he always has 
the cards he wants you to select where you must 
take them. No matter how the suggestion is 
placed, or how slight the suggestion is, it is the 
turning point, and if followed carefully may be 
caused to cure or remedy any defect, where the 
organs have not been removed. When a person 
thinks his disease incurable, and accepts the cure 
of a similar one, or believes one has been cured; 
he has then, to say the least of it, stopped going 
down, and is easily started in the other direction. 
We have never been able to see why a relative or 
friend should say to the afflicted: "Why, you look 
so bad; 7 ' "you are getting so poor;" "yes, you look 
better, and I believe you are better; but that is just 
the way Mrs. Jones done, and she died. Poor thing! 
after the doctors had done all they could for her;" 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 139 

"yes, I know you are better, if it will only last; I 
hope it will; it would be so nice for you to get 
well.'' 

Such remarks, and a variety of deathbed ex- 
pressions, are what the afflicted are compelled to 
listen to, and side remarks, whisperings, and sor- 
rowful expressions, every hour in the day. Every 
one knows that such talk causes the patient un- 
pleasant feelings and thoughts; if they do not 
know the bad effects on their system; then why, as 
a sane person, wishing to cheer your friend or 
loved one, do you suggest scenes of death and 
suffering, when you have called to give her words 
of cheer. " What father, if he is asked for bread 
by his son, will give him a stone?" 

We will see what physicians and physiologists 
say regarding this. Steele says, regarding the care 
of the sick: "The room should be free from noise 
and excitement of any kind." Here excitement of 
any kind would include any of the remarks 1 have 
related. Continuing, he says: " There should be no 
bustle of any kind; no slamming or creaking of 
doors: no mysterious whisperings; whatever is said 
in the room, should be said in an ordinary tone of 
voice." The unnatural voice is not tuned to suit the 
weak condition of the patient, as that alone will 
suggest to him, "I am very bad, they are so very 
careful," and his nerves give way to suit the condi- 
tion of the emotion. Continuing, he says; "The 
food should be prepared in a plain but inviting 
manner, without tempting the appetite." Here 



140 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

again, we see the appetite (Nature) is to be left to 
act rationally; the food is to be inviting, not tempt- 
ing the appetite. 

The reader will note in the foregoing that we 
must leave everything to the power within to cure, 
strengthen, and build; have the food inviting: do 
not allow the rest of the patient to be disturbed 
(for rest is building) by unnatural noises, by unnat- 
ural voices,' and even add, "do not allow the patient 
to be disturbed by offensive smells about the room.'* 
(We wonder what effect the offensive medicine 
would have that the patient is required to swallow.) 
In other words, encourage the patient in acting 
natural, as that is the only condition where we 
have full relaxation, which alone can allow the 
organs full capacity in their work of replenishing 
the system. There is absolutely nothing in exist- 
ence to us only in or through the mind, and without 
the mind's knowledge nothing real exists to us. 

The mind tells us what is agreeable or distaste- 
ful to us. It tells us we have pain; it tells us when 
we are hungry, weak, tired, sick, sleepy, angry, 
afraid, or ashamed. It moves every limb, every 
muscles, and organ. The mind is influenced, oper- 
ated and swerved by the five senses. The taste 
causes us to think or believe a thing; the smell, the 
hearing, the sight, the feeling, all assist us in pre- 
paring our thoughts (making up our minds). How 
very guarded, then, we should be, in health, to re- 
main so while we have the stock on hand: and how 
very careful we must be in sickness, where we have 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 141 

everything to gain; not to allow suggestions made 
that would destroy or impede the building of those 
bodies. We, however, can do more: we can assist 
by acting natural in the presence of the sick; by 
telling of those that are well or better, by looking 
bright and hopeful; by saying, "you must come 
and see me as soon as you get well," instead of say- 
ing, "I hope you will get well enough to come and 
see me some time." In other words, if you have 
desires for the sufferer, let those desires inspire you 
in your every word, action, and expression. For if 
you are dominated by fear, be assured it will be 
plainly written in all of those; and try as you may 
to disguise it, it is still there, and is read by the 
despondent much quicker than another, as he is 
only liviug on impressions of others, and has 
nothing bright before him. Our best authority says 
"the nurse should act naturally, not tire the patient 
with anxious movements, restlessness, and officious 
care. Trained nurses are the best, and those of 
natural dispositions to one having excessive anxiety" 
It will be noticed they are to act natural, not after 
someone's instruction, or a formulated style. Why? 
Because natural action is performed with ease, 
while unnatural or assumed is performed, like Sun- 
day religion or company manners, always in an 
awkward or bungling manner. If children, or 
adults, have one kind of manners at home and one 
kind abroad, unless they are in company most of 
the time, their manners are strained or unnatural. 
If you use your religion on Sunday only, it is very 



142 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

awkward and not very impressive on Sunday. In 
fact, the every-day Christian is like Josh Billings' 
square man: u No matter when or what side you 
come up to him on, he looks the same.' 7 Hence, 
we see the result of natural action in the sick room. 
If unnatural, the patient sees that is on account of 
his bad condition, and fear enters his mind. Whis- 
pering in the sick room, even if not concerning the 
patient, is taken as something regarding his case, 
that he should not know, and that dread fear con- 
tracts the system. How many deaths have resulted 
from the whispering of the nurse, the low tone of 
the physician in giving directions, or the solemn 
expression that spreads over the face when taking 
the temperature or examing the heart, will never 
be known. 

Always remember that the continued or oft re- 
peated dropping of water wears a stone. The 
oftener the bad suggestion is repeated, or the more 
bad suggestions are given, the deeper and more 
lasting is the evil: whether it is you are losing the 
eyesight, your hearing is impaired, your memory is 
at fault, or regarding some physical disability, the 
fear of this condition contracts the part of the sys- 
tem referred to and prevents the free action of 
nature; also, that a very intense impression is 
attended with rapid and serious results, if the sug- 
gestion is for bad. The constant impression of evil 
or bad results keeps us constantly contracted, and 
we are not building, but the actual wear is grad- 
ually going on. Hence Steele says truly : it is slowly 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 143 

but surely producing death. The good impressions 
allow nature to make constant repairs, and that is 
not all — there is another law of nature: the oftener 
we use our natural gifts the better -they become; 
by using our judgment, our memory, our faith, our 
ingenuity, and every faculty, both mental and phys- 
ical, they grow stronger and serve us better. As 
Steele's physiology has been adopted by many 
states into the public schools, we feel that its teach- 
ings are admitted, and shall quote from it freely, 
that we may offer the reader an abundance of sub- 
stantial and admitted facts, to show the theory of 
contraction we claim, produces the various condi- 
tions, and that unconsciously we have acted upon 
it in every department of life; that the disease is 
not only brought on but cured by these forces. 
Too great or too long protracted contraction, or too 
great and too long relaxation, produces death. By 
contraction of long standing we produce disease; 
by long continued relaxation we cause a waste of 
the entire system. Alternate contraction and 
relaxation at regular intervals fills nature's require- 
ments. 

Steele, on page 142, says: "The sick one needs 
peace of mind, quiet rest; these can be afforded 
only by quiet nursing. Medicine may be needed at 
times to assist nature in the recovery. Usually, how- 
ever, proper rest, cleanliness, plain nourishment, 
and relief of mind are the chief agents in recovery." 
We have quoted the exact language and leave the 
inference to the reader, whether the teachings of 



144 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

this adopted work are favorable to medicine or 
the mind. Steele says those who act as nurses, 
should be careful to rest themselves at regular inter- 
vals, to eat regularly, and avoid all excessive anxiety 
of mind, in order to prevent taking the disease 
themselves. Here he recognizes the rule of regular 
contraction and relaxation. Note his language, 
"eat and rest at regular intervals. 11 The labor of 
nursing and caring for the sick is contraction; rest 
is relaxation. When we eat the stomach is put to 
work and needs rest or relaxation; hence the need 
of eating regularly. Again, avoid all excessive 
anxiety of mind. Anxiety, as all unnatural thoughts 
do, causes contraction, and thus by excessive con- 
traction nature is impeded, wear goes on, and the 
body is soon a lit prey for the bacilli, the microbe, 
the poisons, and miasma, that devour only decaying 
flesh. Tranquility of mind and body, therefore, not 
only renders us free from the ravages, but by 
strengthening the parts after they have found a 
lodgement, they are driven out, as they can not 
subsist upon living, growing flesh. Good, healthy 
flesh or organism is never a prey to disease of any- 
kind; but weak, lifeless or dead flesh is always a 
prey to every kind of disease, or a better name would 
be: the elements of disintegration, or nature's- 
scavengers; which is one species of nature's labor- 
atory; for changing, separating, and rendering 
everything that has passed its usefulness, into a 
condition for other buildings. How wonderful 
these involuntary forces, and how often we use 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 145 

them, though unconsciously, as it were. And yet 
we have been content for thousands of years to 
refer to them as habit, nature, and the involuntary 
forces; and never attempted to use them, scien- 
tifically, nor considered them as a factor in pro- 
ducing disease or health. 

COMMON SENSE. 

The phrase common sense as we use it does not 
imply poor sense, but a sense that is common to 
all; or what we might call mother wit, or inherent 
sense. Neither does it imply that there is a better 
sense, although we frequently hear the expression 
"he had no better sense. 7 ' That there is a sense 
common to all, no one doubts; however, many have 
so covered it up, by being educated in other ways, 
that we have no access to it. If we have been edu- 
cated intellectually in the right direction, or on a 
correct foundation, then we have only prepared our 
common sense into convenient doses, or placed it in 
proper quantities and convenient places for our use 
when an occasion requires it. While if we have 
crammed our brain with useless matter, or with 
wrong ideas, or disastrous theories, then we may 
be said to have acquired uncommon sense, non- 
sense, or no sense at all. Then the idea of follow- 
ing a theory that our every nature tells us is wrong, 
with the hope of building something good from it, 
is erroueous. The object of this book is, first to 
show that we are working to cure this body of its 
ills, and daily using means for this purpose, that 



146 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

our common sense tells us, if we would act as well 
as we know, are in direct opposition to the power 
that builds us; and secondly, to attempt to dis- 
cover to the reader the best means adopted to 
nature's requirements, as far as we have been able 
at present writing to prove them, with the hope 
that chis may start a foundation that will attract 
the intelligent investigator, and in due time a per- 
fect structure may be erected thereon that will 
prove a blessing to mankind. If we, as we are 
shown in all the healing arts, are to rely on nature 
for a cure, or if we only assist nature, why do we 
continually and habitually interrupt nature in her 
efforts to rebuild? and why do we fill those bodies 
with medicine, elopes, and electricity, none of which 
can be found in the construction of our bodies, 
while all will destroy both life and body; yes. even 
mind, if given in sufficient quantities, or even in 
any quantity if given persistently. If disease is the 
road to death, then health is the road to life. There 
is scarcely a medicine, except opiates, that has a 
specific action, but will give pain or uneasiness in 
its action. Uneasy means not easy, or dis-ease. 
When we give a man a start towards life, why do 
we first start him towards death ? as Paul asked, 
"Must we do evil that good may appear." 

If all medicines were pleasant, all treatments 
soothing, there would be some excuse for using 
them. But when medicines gripe, nauseate, weaken, 
and deplete the system, they annoy the mind, 
weaken the organs, burn the sensory nerves, and 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 147 

cause contraction of the muscles, as everything un- 
pleasant and offensive does, which we have shown 
by the best medical authority, physiology, and the 
experience of every adult who reads this book, to 
be detrimental to health, life, and happiness. You 
have heard doctors say, "I dislike to make you so 
sick, but you will have to get worse before you 
are better." The Universal Dictionary of the Eng- 
lish language says: "Allopathy: anything which 
befalls one; hence, a passive condition; passively 
to receive an impression. A system of medicine 
(that ordinarily practiced), the object of which is to 
produce in the bodily frame another condition of 
things than that in or from which the disease has 
originated. If this can be done, the disease, it is 
inferred, will cease." Allopathy is opposed to home- 
opathy, which aims at curing disease by producing 
in antagonism to them, symptoms similar to those 
which they produce; the homeopathic doctrine 
being that "like is cured by like/' The Acme 
Cyclopedia defines allopathy as "the art of curing 
diseases by producing symptoms different from 
those of the primary disease." 

The reader will notice the patient becomes pas- 
sive to receive an impression. This is hypnotism, 
magnetic healing, Christian science, or divine heal- 
ing. All must have the patient passive (which 
means not active of themselves, or non-resisting) ; 
then the patient is ready to accept other conditions. 
Notice, the object is to produce in the bodily frame 
a condition different from the one which the disease 



14S THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

originated from. If this can be clone, the disease, 
it is inferred, will cease. Also, it is intended to pro- 
dace symptoms different to those of the primary 
disease, which infers that the medicine product-- a 
secondary disease, which it is inferred will cease; 
and it surely will if the patient has the impression 
(suggestion) right. 

It all reminds one of the story of the old doctor, 
who. after examining the boy, told the father he 
could not determine what ailed his son. "Well," 
said the father, "you can do nothing for him?" 
"Oh yes," said the doctor, "I can throw him into 
fits, and I am death on fits." 

Everything soothing is relaxing, and brings 
ease; no matter whether it is kind words, sympa- 
thetic hands, warm lotions, or pleasant thoughts. 
When you have ease, you are allowiug the involun- 
tary forces to build you up. Always remember, 
when you think you should take something, the 
best thing to take is a rest, as it costs less, is less 
injurious, and if it is a perfect rest in mind and 
body, it will cure many ailments in a few days; all 
in time, if persistently applied. 

Ely E. Brown, in his Electric Physiology, a 
standard work, on page 109, says: "The nerve 
force (involuntary force) may perform their action 
of sending out motor impulses (movements) with- 
out the conscious action of the mind. If the irrita- 
tion is extreme, the nerve centers act before the 
mind has had time to consider and direct the move- 
ment. In case where you touch the hot object, you 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 149 

take the hand away instantly before the mincl has 
had time to act. If yon are stuck with a pin, you 
flinch instantly; if you are about to fall, you catch 
your balance. This action of the nervous system, in 
which the mind does not seem to act, is called 
reflex action. If the spinal cord is cut, so as to 
destroy all connection with the brain, the nerves 
which are connected with the gray matter of the 
cord will still perform reflex action. If the part 
of the body that is supplied by these nerves be 
pinched or burned, the part thus injured will be 
thrown into violent motion. In this case the mind 
can not receive any feeling from the injured part, 
and is wholy unconscious that the motion is pro- 
duced. This is positive proof that the centres may 
give impulses that cause motion, without the action 
of the brain or mind. Such action is purely re- 
flex." 

It will be noticed in all the evidence he adduces, 
that consciousness, or the reasoning mind, was not 
known in any of the transactions; but the gray 
matter of the spinal column, which is really an 
extension of the cerebellum, and is the main line to 
the four principal stations that distribute the lines 
throughout the'entire system. 

In reciting the uses of reflex action, Brown says: 
'"They are of the most important character. It 
relieves the mind; during sleep it continues the vital 
process; during the waking hours it performs the 
usual acts of standing, walking and working; it 
conducts the operations of the sympathetic system; it 



150 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

enables the mind to perform its usual acts with 
ease. Reflex action not only directs the process of 
the body, but largely invades the realms of the in- 
tellectual and mental action. The whole matter of 
habit, whether of body or of mind, is a manifi 
tion of reflex action; as the nervous system acta 
once under certain conditions, so it is disposed to 
act again under similar conditions. By repetition 
the action follows without thought. The more we 
practice a thing, whether of mind or body, the 
firmer the habit becomes. When we see that all 
the organs of the body are dependent upon the 
nerves for energy and control, also the conscious 
mind depends upon the condition of the nervous 
system, all of which are admitted on every hand. 
how careful we should be of the conditions sur- 
rounding and operating upon our nerves, implant- 
ing habits, which dominate us and grow stronger 
and worse by each successive action until they 
compromise every function of the body. To avoid 
this it is necessary to diversify our lives; change of 
food, raiment, manner of walking, talking, resting, 
business, and recreation. The word re-orea-tion 
is very significant. By it we usually refer to rest 
from business or a change of surroundings, but the 
word signifies to create anew. Hence, when we 
resort to new scenery, new sports, new duties and 
pleasures, we have changed our habits, or rather 
started on new habits, and nature is again, herself 
and is building us up." 

I once in treating a lady that was very intens 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 151 

and a bundle of habits, told her she should change 
every habit that she had. She said she had but one 
habit, and that was goiug to church twice every 
Sunday. "Well," said I, "you should either go 
three times or only once." Diversion of mind is 
rest; because one thought, one scene, or one con- 
tinuous attention holds the muscles in constant 
strain, and no relaxation or rest is given — all wear 
and no repair. We have searched physiology, 
medical works, and instructions for healthy exer- 
cise that were not written as advertisements, and 
we find that each and every one, after speaking of 
the muscular exercise, gives the change of scenery 
or diversion as the principle benefit to be derived. 
We find: Walking, after a brief remark regarding 
the muscular action: "here the varied scenery has 
an exhilerating effect upon the nervous system. 17 
Bicycling, after the muscular action is barely 
alluded to: "here the rapid change of scenery is of 
the greatest importance; by it the mind is refreshed, 
relieving the bodily strain." Horseback riding "is 
excellent; the varied scenery gives a healthy tune to 
the entire system.'' Farm labor or outdoor work 
is recommended for health; it says the great variety 
of muscular and mind work is very conducive to health 
of mind and body. Rowing: "it brings into play all 
the muscles, but is apt to be overdone." It will be 
seen that though rowing brings into play all 
muscles, it is liable to be overdone. There is a lack 
of change of scenery and a constant work, which 
rapidly depletes the energies. 



152 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

Physiology says: "Where outdoor exercise can 
not be had, indoor exercise is just as efficient; and 
even the invalid confined to his bed may, by his 
mind, imagine himself exercising in many ways, and 
feel all the benefits of muscular exercise." Who, 
then, with this array of admitted facts, can doubt 
that the mind, is where the diversion is needed; and 
if the mind is in a pleasant state all the time, every 
person may be as healthy and happy as a lady I 
know in Nevada, Missouri, who has never walked 
and has no hands, but is a health} 7 , happy. Christian 
lady. During the active working of a muscle, the 
waste far exceeds the repair, the wornout material 
accumulates faster than it can be carried away by 
the excretory organs, and we feel fatigued. If mus- 
cular action be long continued, without diversion 
of mind, the muscles waste or are worn out the 
same as when not in use for a long time. In both 
cases the change of scene is lacking and as nature 
must have diversion, and our mind is nature (we 
refer to the subjective mind), then we must look to 
the mind for to retain health and to recover it as 
well. 

Take a journey where there is but little change 
of scenery and we will soon tire (wear), even 
riding in a Pullman coach, at night or in inclement 
weather: then try the mountain scenery, where 
the view is changing every mile, the wonders of 
nature grand, and we spend an entire day without 
tiring, and are sorry when night shuts out the view. 
Even the old mountain coach — rough, crowded, 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 153 

and slow — the scenery kept the body fresh and 
made the appetite good. Ride to town ten miles 
over the same road you have traveled for years 
and know everything on the route, and while you 
may have an easy surry and a good horse, you are 
worn out by the monotony. 

A walk up a steep hill or Pike's Peak, enough 
to amount to a week's labor in muscular strength, 
has been accomplished by thousands of persons 
who could not perform a good half clay's labor. 
There is no longer any doubt that an equal expan- 
sion and contraction is essential to bodily health, 
and that the mind can not be pure in a diseased 
tenement, that the mind is the director of all func- 
tions, that to have the functions of the body acting 
properly, we must have pleasant scenes before the 
mind, or rather look for the good in every thing, 
and pass the evil by. 

All of the senses are in ready access to the 
system which produces the reflex action. We start 
with the smell of ammonia, start at a flash of 
lightning, also loud thunder, an offensive taste, and 
a hot iron; showing it has access to the five senses. 
Under hypnosis we produce this same action, regard- 
less of the conscious mind. And we may even 
deceive the nerves into action by perverting the 
senses; or to be more explicit, by subjecting them 
to false notions. What then of the mind that is 
constantly feci by this conscious mind ? on false 
theories, worry, dread, fear, malice, and all the pro- 
ducts of this class, which produce decay and death ? 



154 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

Thank God the remedy' is easy and costs nothing, 

and brings pleasure all along the route, and is the 
product of one thought, desire, while the name of 
the bad is legion. 

STIMULANTS. 

Physiology teaches that all stimulants quicken 
the action of the muscles, the heart beats faster, 
and all muscles are stimulated or excited to action. 
Action of muscle is contraction. As the heart is 
the only muscle that alternately contracts and re- 
laxes, it works half time and rests half, and can not 
be made to either contract or relax, one to a greater 
extent than another without causing death. Other 
muscles act differently. You can hold any other 
muscle in tension for a long time, and are only 
compelled to relax it by its weakened condition, or, 
as we call it, getting tired. No muscle can build or 
replenish while in a state of contraction. If it 
could, we should never get tired, but if we had the 
power to raise a certain weight, which we do by the 
contraction of a muscle or muscles, then we could 
hold it indefinitely. This gives an idea of the rapid 
wear our system is subjected to constantly. The 
holding of our arm at right angles to the body will 
necessitate sufficient contraction to prevent the 
muscles from taking nourishment, so that the slight 
la.bor of holding its own weight will in a few min- 
utes so deplete its strength as to cause it to fall, for 
lack of strength. The stimulant only caused it to 
think it had strength to spare, and it went on 



THE INVOLUNTARY FOECES. 155 

working as long as it could, and of course received 
no nourishment during labor. When the stimulant 
dies, or is expended, whether this stimulant was 
excitement, beer, wine, whiskey, or what we call 
medicine, the fact remains that the muscles are 
depleted, not from the amount we have lifted, ran, 
or done in any other way, but from holding them 
contracted, and they could not rebuild — all wear 
and no repair. 

When we sit and work with our hands, our back 
usually gets tired first. We unconsciously hold the 
muscles of the back. Some, however, can stoop 
over for hours and not feel tired. They allow the 
form to support them as it was intended, and do 
not hold themselves by their muscles. We should 
never use any muscles in our labors that is not 
necessary to perform the labor. In walking we 
hold the back muscles, and those of the abdomen, 
and even our arms and legs take on contraction 
that is unnecessary. The eyes are injured by con- 
tracting the muscles to endeavor to see a thing 
more fully. Our thoughts are also the cause of 
great contraction even in matters of business. 
When we attempt to "concentrate our thoughts" — 
contract — and the longer the mind is on one sub- 
ject, the greater the injury or tirecler the mind is. 
By holding the thought in one position a long time, 
the muscles that are thus holding it, from lack of 
nourishment, wear out and refuse to hold longer, 
and the result is our mind is "so bothered"— left 
without support — that we can not concentrate it 



156 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

upon any one subject. This condition we call 

nervous. Why we so term it, I do not know, unless 
nervous means that all the nerves indiscriminately 
have full sway, instead of our mind using such 
nerves as will direct it as we wish. Returning 
the stimulant: Physiology says: "After the stim- 
ulant comes a reaction of muscles, which ends in 
paralysis, irritation, and inflammation, which is 
determined by a depression of mind and body." 
We may see by this, which is admitted medical 
authority, that any stimulant causes us to use too 
much vitality, or in other words, causes us to over- 
draw on our reserve force; and under the action 
induced by the stimulant, the muscles thus in 
action are. taking no nourishment, and cause weak- 
ness, pain, disease, and often death, under long 
continued strain or very intense. This intoxicant 
may be excitement, fear, or alcohol. 

Now, if these be the effects of a stimulant that 
may be used in large quantities by anybody with- 
out producing death, what would be the effect of a 
nerve stimulant, a heart stimulant, and all the so- 
called medical stimulants, which are of so great 
and so dangerous a strength to require as a precau- 
tion against death, that one man must study two 
or more years to be capable to prescribe the dose. 
and another man must study as long to enable him 
to compound the stuff after the other has written 
just the quantity and the kind to be used ? The 
last man must know better than the first, as the 
law holds the prescription clerk responsible for 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 157 

injury, even where the doctor has prescribed too 
large a dose or too dangerous a medicine. The 
druggist is subject to the labels on the package, 
the various strengths of different manufactures, a 
mistake in his sight, or the bother of others while 
he is compounding. As is usual, the last man, or 
consumer, pays the duty. If we are shocked at the 
effects of alcoholic stimulants, and God knows they 
are bad enough, should we not turn our attention 
to the other evil and reform all ? How about the 
safety of all this ? Both of these men must have 
passed an examination before a man, or men, who 
have learned the same thing and in the same man- 
ner, and have a diploma from a school of the same 
class, setting forth the above facts. This must be 
signed by one having the same knowledge. Then 
we assume they have the right to injure or kill, and 
we have no recourse to the law; and even when we 
do, there can be no evidence offered but from men 
in the same business. How very considerate we 
have been? for the health and lives of the dear 
people. Yes, we have studied many years and 
expended much money to learn — what ? Latin 
names and phrases, to keep people from knowing 
the cheap character of most of the medicines we 
use, and the dangerous and injurious character of 
the others; also changing the names of diseases 
and learning new names, that we may have a bad 
case or a wonderful cure as we choose. For in- 
stance: (cerebro-spinal meningitis) when the old 
doctors thought it only brain fever. 



158 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

This, I am aware is not popular talk; but the 
tide of popular opinion is drifting us in this direc- 
tion, and another decade will see the surging waves 
of the people's sentiment bury those antiquated 
theories with the art of bleeding and the black cat 
skin theory. 

The using a thing because it produces a certain 
thing or condition, is no argument of sound prac- 
tice. The old negro doctor on the plantation said, 
when asked what he had done for the other darky, 
who had a broken leg: "I give him a cupful of 
persimmon tea and a tablespoonful of glue." " Why 
did you give this?" asked the surgeon. "Well, 
sah," said the darky, "the persimmon draws the 
parts together and the glue sticks them fast." 

Very good theoretical practice, if the medicine 
could have reached the parts without injury to the 
remainder of the system. I have only this week 
been called in a case where the doctor had been 
giving strong estringents internally, for twenty- 
three days, to stop a hemorrhage of the uterus. It 
will be needless to say that the bowels and kidneys 
had not acted for more than a week, while the 
entire system was contracted and in pain, and the 
hemorrhage continued unabated, as not one hun- 
dredth part of the drug had reached the uterus; 
not enough to stop it if contraction was needed. 
Most of it had been absorbed by the orther organs 
on its way. I relaxed the contracted system, gave 
the blood an opportunity to circulate naturally, and 
there was no longer any congestion in any part. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 159 

In two hours the hemorrhage had ceased, the 
woman was resting without pain, but very weak 
from loss of blood; and the fact the system could 
not take nourishment or repair while contracted. 
The very fact that all internal remedies affect most 
of the organs through which they pass, is evidence 
against their use. 

The reason one person requires more of a cer- 
tain physic than another, is that their constipation 
is in the lower bowels, and all the organs must be 
relaxed, or rather, all will take some of the laxa- 
tive, and we must give enough to reach the last; 
when it is in the stomach, a less quantity does. 

EEMEDIES FOR ALL. 

Good quiet rest, free from disturbance or disturb- 
ing influences, is nature's own remedy. But the 
mind must rest as well as the body. Our conscious 
mind is the destroying element, as it controls the 
subconscious mind in our waking state, and even 
when our sleep is not sound, its influence is felt. 
Where the patient is suffering pain, a brisk but 
light rubbing, in a manner that will not worry the 
patient, is always alleviating. In fevers, a brisk 
rubbing all over the body, limbs, and head, or still 
better, by pushing the flesh under the hand and 
rubbing rapidly without letting the hand slip, only 
to move to another place, will relieve fever by 
relaxing the tension, and this will equalize the tem- 
perature. 

Always when it can be done, wring, flex or 



160 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

knead the entire surface, giving particular attention 
to the chest, back, and back of the neck; in stomach 
troubles, a careful working of the bowels for fifteen 
minutes, even up to and under the lower edge of 
the ribs, also place the hands over the seat of pain 
(after making them hot by rubbing them together 
rapidly) for fifteen minutes. Headache, toothache, 
and many other pains, can be relieved in fifteen 
minutes, by the hot hands. A moisture will appear 
under the hand which indicates relaxation and 
reaction. When the perspiration appears on a 
patient, you are surely benefiting him. 

In the foregoing instructions, and all other 
manipulations, the suggestion should be used where 
it will be understood by the patient. The kind and 
soothing influences of the warm hand is very good 
food for the mind, but the proper suggestion that 
will prepare the mind to accept the action as a 
remedy goes much farther than anything else. 
Whatever is accepted fully by the conscious mind, 
the subconscious mind will act upon. Sometimes 
the contraction impedes circulation, and causes 
pain; sometimes the contraction of a muscle is so 
great it causes pain where it attaches to the bone, 
and by muscular contraction we prevent the action 
of the bowels and cause pain. When this contrac- 
tion is relieved, pain is gone, and if kept in this 
normal condition long enough the parts are re- 
newed. In the mouth, throat, and stomach, the 
injury is soon repaired, as we have shown how 
those cells are built up very rapidly and last but a 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 16 

short time, throughout the mucus membrane. We 
have treated ulcerated sore mouth at night and by 
morning all the large yellow ulcers had entirely 
disappeared. Cold feet are remedied by the rapid 
current of blood passing through them, and often 
one treatment is sufficient. Muscular or inflamma- 
tory rheumatism is perhaps the hardest to remove, 
as the bones are slowest in growing, and muscles 
also are very slow growth. The relaxation must 
be kept down until the new muscles appear, lest 
the reflex action cause the return of the trouble. 
There will always be a coldness from the con- 
traction to the extremities, and heat from the con- 
traction to the heart, except it be in the involuntary 
muscles attached to the hair follicles that are scat- 
tered all over the body; and they first make the 
surface chilly and flesh rough, followed by fever 
(chills and fever). Colds and la grippe are also 
from this cause. Where there is a contraction in 
one part of the sj^stem, there is usually a congestion 
in others, as the heart is constantly sending the 
blood out with great force, and if it is impeded at 
some point or part of the body too much is forced 
in some other. Sick headache is always accom- 
panied by cold feet and limbs. The same effect is 
seen in water pipes. On a system where all are in 
use the pressure is mild; but if half are shut off 
suddenly, the pressure is much greater on the 
others. Under these conditions we find the parts 
where circulation is impeded are cold, as there is 
no warm, fresh blood passing, the blood obtaining 



162 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

its heat from the carbon in passing through the 
lungs, while the heated parts show too much circu- 
lation. We all know that in most kinds of head- 
ache we get relief by bathing the feet, or what is 
better, the legs to the knees, in hot or very warm 
water. Now, if the bath be too long continued, and 
the reaction sets in while in the water, our remedy 
is injurious. The reason for this is, the warm bath 
causes the relaxation in the lower limbs and free 
circulation or an equalized circulation. Bub when 
this has been accomplished the remedy should be 
removed, the limbs rubbed dry, and wrapped or 
covered warm, to allow perspiration, or the reaction 
will be internal and another unequal condition of 
circulation enforced. It is well to state right here, 
and should not be forgotten, that where any con- 
dition has been of long standing, or has been re- 
peated a number of times, the same may appear 
again after relief has been had, and often several 
times, but usually in a modified form and at irreg- 
ular intervals. These returns do not remain long, 
as they are the result of reflex action. Never allow 
yourself to aggravate the condition by fears that 
the disease has returned; but give yourself no con- 
cern, and it will soon pass off. When contraction 
has been brought on in this manner, that is, purely 
reflex, if the mind is kept on any other thoughts 
but ourselves or our troubles, the muscles will re- 
lax. This getting away from ourselves is a good 
plan at times. In fact, we should endeavor to 
bestow as little attention upon ourselves as possible, 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 163 

as the subconscious mind can safely be trusted to 
run this body. 

Where headache and other trouble has been of 
years standing, more times or repeated relaxations 
are necessary, as we must acquire the habit of re- 
laxing to rid us of the habit of contracting. 

In constipation, the bowels should be given an 
opportunity to act at stated times every day, 
whether there is an indication of an action or 
not. Never try to produce an action by straining 
or forcing, as that contracts the muscles and makes 
the condition worse; but take your accustomed 
position and employ the mind in any way, to keep 
it from yourself or the object to be gained. In 
other words, get away from yourself entirely, and 
you will soon see the worst case of constipation 
give way to good healthy action. 

This abstraction of mind requires perseverance. 
With many, who are constantly thinking of their 
troubles, it will require time and patience, as new 
habits must be formed to rid as of the old ones. 
One thing you should see to is this: be sure the new 
habit is one for good; do not acquire the drug habit 
to relieve any habit. 

RELAXATION. 

We get away from business to relieve the strain 
and rest up. We go to the seaside and resorts for 
health; and it is good to do so. But the fact remains 
that new thoughts, new scenery, and new faces, 
attract our attention and we relax our muscular 



164 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

tension, allow nature to act, we breathe freer, and 
we find the first day improves us, two weeks builds 
us up, even in ten miles of home; and one would 
do as well at home if we could find sufficient diver- 
sion, or get away from ourselves and our affairs. 

A change of business frequently restores us to 
health. In the old business we had fallen into a 
routine of habits, all wearing in the same groove, 
until our entire system was controlled by reflex 
action or habit. By doing the same way at the 
same time each day we form a habit, and our nat- 
ural action is superceded by nerve action, which we 
acquired by our reasoning mind. The new business 
furnished us a diversion. Everything had to be 
learned. New customers, new duties, and perhaps 
different hours, and while we were contracting the 
new habits, we abrogated the old habits; and nature 
found relief from the strain. This new business 
will in time, by following a strict adherence to 
business principles, fix upon us habits that are as 
disastrous as those we fled from. 

All have noticed the man whose cares rested 
lightly upon him; who only wanted time to dig 
bait, and buy a pint of snake-bite remedy; and he 
was ready to leave his business and join a party for 
a day's fishing. He is always well and happy; his 
business is usually good and prosperous. If he 
misses a deal by being absent, his freedom from 
bodily infirmities, his jolly good disposition, <>r nat- 
ural condition, brings him others that the careful 
every-day business man would miss, on account of 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 165 

his bodily condition and the mental strain. Again, 
the natural condition of anyone attracts every one 
unconsciously, by the same law, and his customers 
are more numerous and of a far better class as far 
as profit is concerned; and he has gained in a busi- 
ness sense rather than lost, by leaving his cares at 
times to allow the condition which God created us 
to live in, to assert itself. If we fear to give our 
bodies and mind rest for the sake of a few paltry 
dollars, our fears of losing a deal will increase 
until, the trace on our countenance is readily read 
and feared by our customers, and becomes revolt- 
ing to them. "All work and no play makes Jack a 
dull boy." The rule to apply is to change every 
way you have of mind and body; clo not allow it to 
become a habit. As nature requires diversion, there 
must be some reason for this; and nature is always 
reasonable in her demands. By running in one 
channel, we cut grooves or contract habits that 
dominate our mental and physical action; while by 
diversion, nature works as God intended, and we 
are better physically; and in consequence of the 
uninterrupted state of mind, are better socially, 
religiously, and intelligently. 

TEMPERANCE. 

The definition of temperate is given as "the 
quality or state of being temperate;" also, "mod- 
eration, absence of heat or passion, calmness, 
quiet;" while temperance is defined as "habitual 
moderation in regard to the indulgences of the 



166 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

appetites and passions, abstinence from all excess, 
improper indulgence, or the use of anything injuri- 
ous to moral or physical well being." Moderation, 
therefore, is a medium ground; not eating too 
much, not sleeping too much, not working too long, 
not doing this way too long, nor that way too long. 
While the Bible says pray always, it does not mean 
we should not do anything but pray. We are 
enjoined to work with our hands, the mind, and to 
<lo good to others, etc. Hence, we may conclude 
that a man may pray too much (yet I do not wish 
to alarm the reader on that score). A man might 
put in too much time praying for rain and not cul- 
tivate his crop, or for the conversion of his neigh- 
bor and neglect the social relations God has 
enjoined upon us. Many people are very intem- 
perate in their church work; they "strain at a gnat 
and swallow a camel." 

One rule is always safe: Follow }'our desires in 
all things. Desire is from the soul, and if allowed 
free rein, that is, to trust and follow its dictates, it 
leads in the right path in all things. We wish for 
many things, and covet many things, that are 
wrong; and are born of that evil mind or thought. 
But no one can hope for an evil; no one can desire 
an evil for himself or for another. Paul, in speak- 
ing of the two minds, and how we are governed by 
them, or the evil side, says: "The things 1 would 
do I do not, and that which I would not do that do 
I." This, to be understood, should read: "The 
things my soul tells me to do, my reasoning mind 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 167 

tells me not to do, and I do not do it; and the 
things that my soul tells me I should not do, that 
my reason tells me to do." This evidence of the 
subconscious (or conscience) mind, is abundant 
with all. It is always telling us this is wrong, and 
that is right; and yet with our great (?) reasoning 
faculties we talk ourselves into it. I have never 
done anything in my life, where I had to reason 
with myself, but I afterwards found I was wrong. 
Verily, reason is unreasonable. 

Here is a sample of the reasoning mind, from a 
St. Joseph paper: 

"St. Joseph, Mo., October 8, 1900.— Mrs. Alexan- 
der Davis, living at Eighteenth and Messanie 
streets, in this city, dreamed that her husband died 
a mysterious death. When she arose yesterday 
morning the dream was impressed on her memory. 
She went about her work, however, and when her 
husband awoke she started to tell him about her 
dream. 

"He was sitting on the side of the bed, and 
when she had finished the narrative, he fell to the 
floor dead. Davis was 39 years old, and lived in 
St. Joseph all his life. He was a brick layer by 
trade. An inquest was held, and the jury decided 
that death was due to heart failure.'' 

That the verdict was correct no one will doubt, 
as a person can not be dead as long as the heart 
has not failed; but I really think the verdict should 
read: due to mind action. 

Then let us see what we may know of the other 



168 T?HE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

mind. I know of a man who has been an inmate 
of an asylum for years, as an insane patient. The 
mind was not deranged, but entirely gone. It was 
said he was once a very shrewd man. Through a 
vicious practice he had wasted his intellect. The 
repeated practice had become so fixed, that after 
his reason was gone, he would indulge anywhere 
and everywhere, and never seemed to recognize 
the presence of anyone. His form was a shapeless 
mass for a human. He would follow the others in 
their walks for daily exercise, when placed in line, 
but his gait, was a series of falling and catching 
rather than walking. He would sit all day where 
he was placed, unless at the meal hour, when he 
would go to his place at the table, on time to a 
minute, without a bell, whistle, or clock, to remind 
him of the time. In fact, he never heard either of 
them, apparently. Here was a man living without 
an intellect, as that had been destroyed; yet he 
obeyed those things that his nerves had been con- 
statly doing. His life force was constantly wasted 
by the vicious habit, and yet he was very strong 
and never sick a day; his bowels were as regular 
as a clock twice each day, when he must be placed 
on the commode by the attendant. There was no 
opposition to nature's workings; and all that kept 
him from growing very strong was the depleting 
habit. He had no fear, no anger, no malice, nor 
forebodings; and the mind was keeping him better 
than we with all of our care of the body. He had 
but the subconscious mind. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 169 

Take Reuben Fields, the mathematical prodigy 
of Warrensburg, Missouri. Reuben never had an 
intellect; never learned at school, and only seems 
to have what we call instinct in the animal. He 
drifts aimlessly about, eats when he feels hungry, 
sleeps when night comes in any place he may find 
himself. But you ask him for the time, day or 
night, and he will give the exact sun time. Thou- 
sands of mathematical problems have been solved 
by him, and all correctly. He sits all clay and 
listens to a number of clerks calling out yards and 
fractions, pounds and fractions, at various prices, in 
taking an inventory, and at night he will say put 
down this figure and that, and so on, and when you 
have done there is the exact amount of stock that 
has been called to him, in dollars and cents. It is 
said where two clerks have been keeping the 
account and tallied in amounts, that Reuben's fig- 
ures were exactly the same. 

I heard a hardware man say: "Mr. Fields, I 
have two rolls of screen wire that are eighteen 
inches wide, two twenty, twenty that are twenty- 
four, twenty twenty-six, twenty twenty- eight, five 
thirty, i\\e thirty-two, five thirty-four, ten thirty- 
six, and one that is forty-two inches wide; each roll 
is one hundred feet long; I pay nine-tenths of a 
cent per square foot; what does it cost meV 7 
Reuben gave the correct amount at once. 

I will reproduce a statement I have from a news- 
paper: 



170 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

"ANOTHER EXHIBITION OF REUBEN FIELDS' 
WONDROUS POWERS. 

"Reuben Fields, the mathematical prodigy, was 
at Butler the other day. He strolled into the Wal- 
ton Trust Company's office and accidentally met 
Bert Allen. Now, Bert is away up in figures him- 
self. Reub. usually charges a dime to work a 
problem. Bert told him that he would give him a 
quarter if he would work out correctly the problem 
he would submit. Reub. said he was ready. Bert 
gave him a problem in permutation, to-wit: How 
many variations do the twenty-six letters of the 
alphabet admit of. The correct number is found 
by multiplying one by one, which gives one; then 
by two, and so on, until by increasing the multiplier 
by one each time up to twenty-six. 

"Reub. was eager to secure the twenty-live 
cents. He shut his eyes for a few moments, and 
then mumbled something unintelligible to those 
present, and said: 'I've got it!' He then gave out 
the following figures as the result of his mental 
effort, viz.: 403,291,461,126,605,635,584,000,000. 

"Bert Allen has worked out the problem, and 
says the figures given by Reub. are correct. Bert 
gives the following as the correct enumeration: 
Four hundred and three septillions, two hundred 
and ninety-one sextillions, four hundred and sixty- 
one quintillions, one hundred and twenty-six quad- 
rillions, six hundred and five trillions, six hundred 
and thirty-five billions, and five hundred and eighty- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 171 

four millions. Reub. works all problems by the 
exercise of his gift, as he calls it." 

Here we have a man in perfect health, and prob- 
ably forty years old, and he has no reasoning fac- 
ulty at all, and his subconscious mind is running 
his body without a mistake; while he has access to 
that mind that knows and can accomplish things 
that no other man can. 

If we only trusted our inherent powers we would 
know as well as Reuben; but from lack of trust or 
the substitution of the intellect, we lose the other 
mind. How many old men have you seen that 
could not read or write and did not know a single 
rule in arithmetic. Ever\ one of them could beat 
the average scholar in mental work; and as for 
remembering accounts and events, they were as 
reliable as a book. They trusted that memory. 
This mind records every thought and impression, 
and will produce them if trusted; none is ever lost, 
even if we fail to recall them. 

Emerson said: "For everything that is given, 
something is taken in return. Society acquires 
new arts and loses all instincts. The civilized man 
has built a coach, but lost the use of his feet; he 
has a fine Geneva watch, but can not tell the hour 
by the sun." If we would only trust it for good as 
the conscience dictates, our minds and bodies would 
be far more able to cope with the scientific prob- 
lems than they are, dwarfed by our own disobe- 
dience. 



\il THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

CHEMICAL ACTION. 

The chemist knows how rapid is the transforma- 
tion, where different chemicals are mixed. By 
mixing or compounding we produce a variety of 
different things. Even the black charred remains 
of wood that w T e call charcoal, that smuts our 
hands at the touch, by chemical action under pres- 
sure makes the beautiful diamond, the standard of 
values among the precious stones, the most costly 
ornament that adorns a crown. The mist that 
composes the densest fog. that obscures the bril- 
liancy of the sun, is by this same law converted 
into rain, to purify the air, to moisten and assist 
vegetation in growth, and minister to life in every 
form upon the earth. In turn, by the sun's rays, 
it is sent in its rounds of usefulness to be converted 
into rain, hail, or snow, according as it is met by 
the proper conditions. This water is also condensed 
by artificial means, or inventions of man, and de- 
stroys it as water, but goes forth in some other 
form, doing good or evil. Nothing is lost. So it is 
with our thoughts; while they are passing through 
our brain unfelt, or unheard by those around us, 
they are not lost. They in time return, as a raven 
or a dove. They all leave their impression on our 
physical body; it may be slight, but by repetition 
becomes a large factor in our lives. How rapid 
this may be, we can only as yet surmise. 

A commendatory remark in our presence brings 
the flush to the cheek, while a derogatory remark 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 178 

about us or ours instantly sends a rush of hot blood 
to the entire surface of the body. One who is in 
the habit of getting angry, feels the effects quickest, 
and more severe. Such are termed hot-headed or 
hot-blooded, when the fact is they have only used 
themselves to resentment, and fostered this partic- 
ular reflex action (habit) and it acts instantly. 

Anger in the babe of one week old produces the 
same flush of blood on the surface. Anger is con- 
traction in its worst form. The millions of delicate 
muscles that are found over the entire surface of 
every human body (except in the palms of the 
hands and soles of the feet) at the base of each hair 
follicle, instantly contract in anger, and the blood 
is checked in its rapid circuit through the body, 
and this is the flush we see and yet more plainly 
feel. If we could only understand that we really 
stop living, in anger, we would try to avert it. We 
are both dying and living all the time, and the fact 
that decides the number of days that we shall live 
(barring accidents) depends upon whether we are 
living most or dying most. If by a spoken word 
in our presence, or hearing, our thoughts produce 
a change in our bodies as we have shown, one 
which physiology teaches produces disease, slowly 
in some instances, but surely, turns a man yellow, 
as in jaundice, in an instant, and in many cases 
causes instant death; what will the chronic grum- 
bler, the calamity prognosticator, the quiet brooder 
of evil, the always cross or morose mind, do for this 
body ? Surely the answer is in the question, as the 



174 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

evidence is conclusive. I knew a boy of fourteen 
who was in the Marshfielcl cyclone, that destroyed 
many lives and thousands of dollars worth of prop- 
erty. This boy had a head of very black hair. The 
storm broke upon them in Morgan county. Mis- 
souri, about dark. The next morning a tuft of 
hair two inches wide, over the right eye, extending 
back four or five inches, was as white as snow. 
More than twenty years have elapsed since the 
transformation, and he has had good health, but as 
the hair is renewed and cut off, the white spot is 
renewed with white hair, while the rest of the hair 
remains black. This is evidence of the ravages of 
fear in the system. In one short minute of terror 
our bodies are transformed by chemical action and 
remain so. If each of us could only realize that 
by one thought on the wrong side, we were entail- 
ing suffering and death upon ourselves, and that 
even if we averted death by good thoughts, the 
scar remained as evidence against us, we would 
fortify ourselves against them. If we could but 
realize this in our youth, then there would be fewer 
start in the wrong direction, with the intention of 
changing to a better life, after the wild oats had 
been sown. Unfortunately, we are not aware of 
the harvest. We always reap as we have sown. 

APPENDICITES. 

The writer, some years ago, was suffering intense 
pain accompanied with soreness in the region of 
the vermiform appendix. A good physician, who 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 175 

was a long-time friend, was called in the case. 
After a careful examination and studying the symp- 
toms, he said: "You have appendicites." He did 
all he knew to relieve me, while I grew worse, until 
I was so sore in the region of the vermiform appen- 
dix I could not bear to be touched. He then pro- 
posed an operation. I objected, as I had never 
believed in the theory of a foreign body passing 
through the entire course of our intricate ma- 
chinery and lodging where nature could not expel 
it. In fact, the theory of so complete a machine 
as man, with such a dangerous error in construc- 
tion, common to all at birth, was more than I could 
admit. He had assisted in six operations for appen- 
dicites, and was authority; yet this did not change 
my views. I was told that time was precious, and 
if I was to be saved I must submit to an operation 
very soon. I began treating myself by lying on 
my back, and with the fingers of both hands, gently 
as I could, worked and kneaded the bowels or rather 
the large colon, at the caecum, or upper end of the 
vermiform appendix, at the junction of the small 
intestines with the ascending colon. I felt satisfied 
the trouble was caused by an impact or clogging of 
the colon. In half a day I was much better, and 
soon had the cake (as it was) reduced to a liquid 
form, and it passed off . I am now confident that 
the working which I gave it, with the intention of 
softening the obstruction, assisted me in relaxing,, 
and it passed off. When my doctor found out the 
result, he became communicative, and admitted 



176 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

that while he had operated on six, and four of them 
had died, he had never found a single appendix 
affected by ulceration, nor a foreign body in one. 
And now conies the startling statement in the St. 
Louis Post-Dispatch that Chinese physicians (semi- 
civilized) cure every case of (so-called) appendicites 
without the use of the knife. I am glad to note 
the best physicians, all over the world, are now of 
the opinion that there is no such disease as appen- 
dicites. I know an old allopathic physician, who, 
by the way, has become almost disgusted with med- 
icines, and only holds to the theory because it has 
cost him so much money and time, who never allows 
a case of typhoid fever to run a day when it is 
discovered. He abrogates the theory of allowing 
the first eruptions to run their course before inter- 
posing the remedy; as he knows new ones are 
forming all the time, and by the time the first are 
gone, there will be many more new eruptions than 
at first, and the weakened condition of the patient 
renders him less able to stand the treatment, and 
consequently more liable to die. He begins with 
heroic treatment at the first and if relief is not 
soon given, follows with the abortive treatment. 
He has been more successful than those who follow 
the treatment) as it is called, or the practice laid 
down in the books. While good surgery is, and 
perhaps always will be useful, the use of the knife 
in cases of disease must be condemned. Yet we 
find the less the doctor knows about the disease he 
is called upon to treat, the more he recommends an 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 177 

operation. I know a lady who had both ovaries 
removed at one operation (so the surgeon reported). 
She had lain nine months in bed, and was growing 
worse and had been repeatedly told by her doctor that 
another operation was necessary to her recovery. 
She had made arrangements to go to the city where 
the first operation was performed, and submit to 
another. In her weak, nervous condition, she could 
have never survived another operation. She was 
called upon by a lady who was lecturing on diseases, 
and giving the doctors the worst of it. The lady 
told her there was no need of an operation, and that 
she could cure her. By a small amount of simple 
remedies, and some common sense instructions, the 
lady in two weeks was able to walk about the 
house, and soon recovered her former good health. 
One strange thing about the case, which I think 
proves that there was deception practiced, during 
this nine months, after the operation the lady men- 
struated every thirty days. This gives cause for 
suspicion, that the second operation was to cover 
the bungling work, or pretended first operation. 
This should not affect the business of the honest 
and good surgeon, but it certainly does lessen faith 
in the profession. 

ENEMAS OR INJECTIONS. 

While there appears some logical arguments in 
favor of injections for constipation and bowel 
troubles, there are also many delusive ideas. Where 
the seat of the disease is in the stomach, it is 



178 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

impossible to reach it with water. And where it is 
located in the duodenum, or the twenty-four feet of 
the small intestines, the idea of washing it out is, 
to say the least, very far reaching. It may be pos- 
sible to force the water through the descending, 
transverse and ascending colon, to the caecum; but 
this is seldom if ever done. I admit there could 
be found reasons for using enemas, for a packed or 
obstruction in the sigmoid flexure. The difficulty 
is usually found in the small intestines, in the 
umbilical region, at the base of the descending 
colon or caecum, and at the junction of the trans- 
verse and descending colon. In the intestines it is 
sometimes called locked bowels; in the caecum, 
appenclicites; and at the colon on the left side, near 
the ribs, it is mistaken frequently for a tumor. The 
enema may cause a relaxation, and the action of 
the bowels would be the natural result. A bread 
pill, with the quiet but positive suggestion from the 
doctor that it would give relief, would have the 
same effect. 

Whatever the mind fully accepts, works out to 
the letter, if within the limits of its action; or if 
it is something that the organs have ever accom- 
plished, or was intended to accomplish. 

HEART. LIVER AND KIDNEY DISEASE. 

Among the common diseases the most frequent 
is the heart, liver and kidneys. If the stomach, 
which has the work of preparing the food for the use 
of all the other organs of the body, is overloaded, 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 179 

overworked, or caused to handle something unfit 
as a food, the contents of that stomach are not fully 
digested, but after becoming a burden to the stom- 
ach are allowed to pass out. Food thus undigested 
is really spoiled; either by decaying in the stomach, 
or fermenting, and has but little nourishment fit 
for body-building. The lacteals in gathering what 
little nourishment they can find, take up some of 
this poison also. This blood is not yet in use in the 
circulation, and on its route to the heart is relieved 
of much of the poison by the liver and kidneys, 
which take out all they can handle. In passing 
through the right side of the heart, it also is weak- 
ened by the poison, and as the blood passes through 
the lungs, where it receives its final purification, 
the remainder of the poison is thrown off. This 
latter is shown by our bad breath. The perspiratory 
organs, or sweat gland, relieve the blood of much 
refuse or wornout material of the body; but if they 
be closed, as is usually the case in disease, then the 
other organs of excretion have still greater bur- 
dens to bear. 

When the pores are closed (no perspiration) 
there is always contraction of the involuntary 
muscles throughout the veins that return the blood 
to the heart. This makes the circulation sluggish, 
gives the heart much heavier labor to force the 
blood through the system, and by the rapid accumu- 
lation of waste of tissue from the contraction, the 
other organs are still further burdened. When we 
see how by one organ's failure to accomplish its 



180 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

duties all the excretory organs are overworked, and 
the failure itself entails an extra duty by the rapid 
waste from the contraction, all of which must be 
borne by these already overloaded organs, we can 
not wonder at the language of Paul when he said, 
"when one organ of the body suffers, all suffer." 
When nothing we eat seems to agree with us the 
contents of that stomach is alarming; the liver is 
loaded down, the kidneys are overworked, the per- 
spiratory glands contract so that we do not perspire, 
the lungs become weak from handling so much 
poison, and they send the blood on its mission of 
replenishing the system with a supply of very poor 
material, and while our growth is retarded our wear 
is fourfold. Is there any wonder that from robust 
health we are made to feel so very weak and pain- 
ful in a few short hours. To add to this our feel- 
ings cause us to contract in other ways, which only 
adds to our already bad condition. In this state, 
which is nearly all dying, and but little living, the 
germs of disease find a very inviting field of decay- 
ing flesh for their support. Every disease that 
lurks in a germ or bacilli is liable to attact us, 
and that too when in our own contracted condition 
we have disease enough to cope with. Many who 
make the mistake of overeating and wrong eating 
will, when they find the stomach overworked, fast 
for a few meals and allow the organs of excretion 
to catch up in their work. This is a very sensible 
plan. We often avoid a severe spell by our atten- 
tion being directed from our own condition to 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 181 

something else. Nature thus left alone relaxes and 
the work goes on unimpeded. Often I have known 
persons who were, to use their own language, "sick 
enough to go to bed," and was kept up by the ill- 
ness of one of their family. Their intense interest 
in the other's condition kept their mind from their 
own trouble, and relaxation restored equilibrium in 
the system, which is health. Where we are tense 
in our nature and an accident happens to one of the 
organs from some careless action, over-indulgence, 
or otherwise, we contract readily, or, as we say, 
give way to our disease, and our condition grows 
rapidly worse. We often hear people say they 
stayed up as long as they could get about, and often 
we think this made the conditions worse. We are 
sure the mere staying up did not if regular rest was 
taken. If you can free your mind of trouble and 
keep it off of your condition, in bed better than out 
of bed, then it is best to lie down; but with many 
to go to bed in the working hours, it is the best 
suggestion for them to get sick they can take. If 
we contract from our impressions (and none can 
doubt it), then we may continue this contraction 
by our impressions; hence we feel our stomach is 
not right and we say that something we ate made 
us sick; we contract, and this makes it worse and 
every time we attempt to do what we want clone 
(get well), we do just what we don't want to do 
(get worse). We use the wrong impressions in 
most cases. Always suggest health for to bring 
health. If a parent wished to make an honest man 



182 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

of his son, would he relate the adventures of 
thieves and bank wreckers, or would he attempt to 
fill the mind with ideas of George Washington and 
other good men ? If a mother attempted to instill 
virtue in her daughter, and furnished the recitals 
of the doings of lewd women as they really done, 
and fed her mind on this, what would the result 
be ? Evil communications corrupt good morals. 
Always think the things you desire, and your de- 
sires will be satisfied, and the same rule is good in 
others; suggest thoughts to them you wish them to 
realize. You can not inspire a person with a 
dancing spirit by playing a funeral dirge, nor cause 
them to mourn by playing the Arkansas Traveler. 

ORGANIC. 

Regarding the organic diseases we so often hear 
about, it might be well to disabuse our minds on 
that score; as some one will say, "Yes, I know that 
is true in most cases, but my disease is chronic:" 
or, "my disease is organic." And when a physician 
says your disease is organic, most people settle down 
to the fact that they must suffer the remainder of 
their days. 

If we are constantly wearing out and also build- 
ing up all the time, if in a normal condition, what 
part would wear faster than the organs that are 
required to work for the support of the body ? 
There is not an organ in the body that is not re- 
newed several times while our bones are being 
renewed once, also the nails. Now, we think 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 183 

nothing of a broken bone reuniting; even when it 
has been asunder, and in several pieces, it gets as 
solid as before the injury. Many of the organs are 
operated upon, and they are repaired by this same 
creative force; rebuilt after they have been cut 
open and parts removed. Then organs are entirely 
removed and we get along without them. 

I do not care what organ is affected, nor how 
bad it is, if the power that alone can create is 
allowed by us to work, or is only trusted, it will be 
relieved and rebuilt, and in some cases in a very 
remarkably short time, as is shown in another 
place. 

Regarding this matter of trusting: If you were 
working in a place where there were valuables, and 
a guard was over you to keep you from taking, or 
take from you anything you might appropriate, 
would you think the proprietors were trusting you ? 
I hear people say: "Oh, yes, I trust God to take 
care of me while I am asleep." If you don't trust 
Him when you are awake, you don't trust Him 
when you are asleep; you only try to make Him 
believe you are trusting Him; because you can 
not see after yourself and you think if you make 
Him believe you are trusting Him, He will be more 
watchful over you. Your very action of professing 
to trust Him, just as we trust a burglar (because 
we can't help ourselves), is a good suggestion to 
you. You show that you believe a thing that is 
trusted works better than one that is watched. 
Any man is more honest when left to his own 



184 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

honor than when he is compelled to be honest. 
To return to the organs: All diseases originate 
in the organs, or by the organs not being allowed 
to pe for m their duty. Then the rest of the system 
is compromised, because the organ so deranged has 
been unable to prepare nourishment for the rest of 
the system, to repair the wear. 

Relaxation is the only remedy that is positively 
without danger of injury to the system, and is of 
itself not a cure: it only quits hampering nature, 
and nature soon repels the evil, whether bacilli, 
tuberculi, or whatever the trouble. The disease is 
a destroyer and nature is a creator. Did you ever 
consider that the same law that created the germ, 
and built you from that germ, could protect you and 
rebuild or repair you if you would allow it ? 

THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS. 

As early as the year 1340 A. D., Daniel Michael, 
of Kent, in his sermon on the remorse of con- 
science, from Matthew xxiv. and 43, says: "For to 
show the care of man within, this example of our 
Lord Jesus Christ saith, 'know this forsooth, that if 
the father of the house knew at which time the 
thief was coming, forsooth he would watch, and 
would not suffer anyone to break into his house.' 
By this father of the house we may understand the 
will of heaven, to whom belong many attendants, 
as thoughts, and his emotions, sense and deeds, as 
well without as within; that is to say, such attend- 
ants will be too slow and willful, unless that fathers 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. . 185 

firmness restrain them and keep them in order. 
Forsooth if he withdraw a little of his diligence, who 
may say how 7 thoughts, eyes, ears, and all the other 
senses, become wild." 

The writer of the above had a good knowledge 
of the mind's action upon our bodies. The Scrip- 
tures say: ''Know ye not that ye defile the temple 
of the living God." We do not defile the soul but 
the temple, wherein the soul, that God-part, dwells. 
To defile it is to render it unfit to occupy. 

"The Lord Gocl formed man from the dust of 
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life, which made man a living soul." This soul- 
life was capable of keeping man free from disease. 
Man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil and fear came upon him. "I was afraid be- 
cause I was naked.' 7 Then, "lest man with this 
knowledge, put forth his hand" and eat of the tree 
of life (which, by the way, he had the privilege of 
eating of from Gocl) and live forever," God put him 
forth from the garden. 

The above figurative language shows the knowl- 
edge the primitive race had of our condition of 
mind, and the dangers of our reasoning mind's 
action over our bodies. "Hence, every generation 
shall be weaker and wiser." iVgain, the Lord said, 
"my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that 
he also is flesh;" hence "his body shall return to 
the dust from whence it came and the Soul to God 
who gave it." 

We see, then, that this soul will not always 



186 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

strive with man (this body of clay), but allow this 
body to return to the dust from which it was 
formed, while the soul will return to God, who 
breathed it into the tenement of clay. In the be- 
ginning man was told to eat of all the trees in the 
garden except the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil. Then from God's own language after- 
ward, if he had eaten of the tree of life, he would 
have lived forever. We then may infer that this 
knowledge or intellect is what is killing us. It 
will be remembered that this tree of life is in the 
eternal city. John says "in the midst of the streets, 
etc., is the tree of life, and the leaves thereof are 
for the healing of the nations." 

The bard who sang "Oh why should the spirit 
of mortal be proud," undoubtedly meant our intel- 
lect, as it is mortal, and there well might be grave 
doubts of any reason it could have for being proud r 
unless it reveled in the destruction of the body. 

Proverbs, chapter iii, reads: "My son, forget not 
my law, but let thy heart keep my commandments; 
for length of days, and long life, and peace shall they 
add to thee. Trust in the Lord with all th\ heart; 
and lean not unto thine own understanding. Be not 
ivise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart 
from evil; it shall be health to thy navel and /narrow 
to thy bones: 1 

To show that the wisdom spoken of often by 
Solomon does not mean our knowledge that we 
acquire by reasoning, we might quote many posi- 
tive passages, but will give a few that will suffice : 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 187 

"Happy is the man who findeth wisdom and get- 
teth understanding; for the merchandise of it is 
better than of silver and the gain thereof than of 
fine gold; length of days is in her right hand; her 
w T ays are pleasantness and all her paths are peace. 
She is a tree of life to all of them that lay hold upon 
her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; 
by understanding hath established the heavens. Let 
them not depart from thine eyes. When thou liest 
down thou shall not be afraid, and thy sleep shall be 
sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear nor of the des- 
olation of the wicked." 

Then follow some things that we should not do r 
each of which is born of our lusts, or the bad side 
of our intellects, not from the heart as our con- 
science will readily tell us. Here are some of them: 
"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, 
when it is in thy power to do; say not to thy 
neighbor, 'go, and come again tomorrow;' I will 
give thee, when thou hast it by thee. Devise not 
evil against thy neighbor, seeing that he clwelleth 
securely by thee. Strive not with a man without 
cause, if he has done thee no harm. Envy thou not 
the oppressor, and chose thou none of his ways. 
But in knoivlcdge of God's laws, and understanding of 
its workings, are surely life unto those that find them, 
and peace unto their flesh." We see here the assur- 
ance of peace of mind and freedom from bodily 
pain or disease. 



1SS THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

WRONG ACTS— THEIR IMPRINTS AND THE 
RELIEF. 

The Bible says: "Parents, provoke not your chil- 
dren to anger." A harsh retort or rash rebuke 
always produces a resentment from anyone. By it 
we encourage a cross, resentful spirit. As children 
are more susceptible to influence than older per- 
sons, they will readily show the same resentful 
spirit in their play with other children. This soon 
becomes a habit and runs through life, growing 
worse, unless by long and patient care they over- 
come it. The careful, kind mother leaves the im- 
pression upon her child, as she is constantly in its 
company during its most tender years, when if is 
forming habits for life. A priest once said: "Give 
me the first six years of a child's life, and T will 
insure that child grounded in the Catholic faith." 
A w r ell known author on business rules says: 
"When you have been treated badly by your whole- 
sale house or jobber, sib right down and write 
and tell them what you think of them: lay the 
letter by until you have slept, then read it, and 
you will rarely ever send it. ,? The writer has tried 
it to his satisfaction, and never yet sent the letter. 
In fact, usually he would have been ashamed to 
allow anyone to have seen the folly he displayed in 
writing such a letter. After our flush of passion 
(our angry muscles relaxed), we could see abundant 
reason why the house had substituted goods or rilled 
the order differently from our instructions. Not 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 189 

having what we ordered, or our order not having 
been sufficiently explicit, they in their interest to 
please us, and wishing to further our interests, had 
sent what we did not want, or at a different price 
than that we had anticipated, and had clone the very 
best they could. 

An angry retort, thoughtlessly made, often 
brings on controversy which ends in serious trouble. 
The rule, "always think twice before you speak,' 7 is 
good, but "do not speak at all if you can not speak 
pleasantly," would be better. "A bitter jest is the 
poison of friendship." From the very fact that 
there is no such thing as a bitter jest, anything said 
in a bitter or acrimonious manner, is not jesting; 
but is intended to mar one's feelings. We often 
feel sorry afterward for saying those things, and 
often make an apology, but the scars remain; and 
while the matter is apparently dropped, both feel 
the effects of it long afterward. An old and good 
rule is: "Never chastize a child in anger." It is 
always more hurtful than good. We are unfit to 
accomplish anything in anger; and our health is 
impaired in proportion to the duration of our 
anger and the intensity of it as well. "Never let 
the sun go down upon your wrath," for if you do 
and attempt to rest with your muscles contracted, 
you will find in the morning you have been run- 
ning under a full head of steam without an engineer 
to regulate, and your condition will be serious. 

A person w 7 ho never forgives, nor forgets an in- 
jury, is in a pitiable condition. We often allow a 



190 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

competitor in business to offend us, when there was 
no intention on his part to do so. The usual way 
is to give him an insult in return. This goes on 
from bad to worse, until both are injured in their 
business, while each has lost at least one factor in 
his pleasure and health. By leading your neighbor 
to believe all your family were bad, you have not 
added one iota to your good, and the evil of the 
family is upon you. By showing your customers 
that your competitor is a scoundrel, or that his 
wares are worthless, you have added nothing to 
your credit nor the value of your wares. By her- 
alding the evil practices of your neighbor or your 
competitor, you add nothing to your good name; 
and in all the foregoing you give notice of your 
appetite for back-biting, and your zeal as a scandal 
monger. And by the evil thoughts you are injuring 
your own mind for the legitimate business you have 
to attend to, and are entailing disease upon your 
system, while the scars that all the evil thoughts 
are leaving are read by all who come in contact 
with you. Prof. S. A. Weltmer once said to me: 
"The man who attends strictly to his own business, 
is the busiest man in the world." His success 
proves the correctness of the statement. We are 
all reminded of those things, both religiously and 
socially, and will make this statement: "There is 
not one thing enjoined upon us in the Bible that is 
not conducive to health; and there is no practice 
condemned by it that is not injurious to health. " 
Truly, it is a book to live by as well as to die by; 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 191 

and this knowledge, so perfect, is evidence that 
when it was written the} 7 knew better than we do 
of the influence of mind over body, and the con- 
trolling power of our reason, or they would not 
have attempted to influence it for good. 

Instead of heralding our dislikes abroad, and of 
regaling everyone we meet with them, we should 
try to render them agreeable; and if they are of 
such a nature as to be repulsive or revolting to us, 
just abandon them. If you can't like this one or 
can't endure that one, why do you keep talking of 
them? If, as you say, you can not, that is sufficient. 
Just drop the matter. Every time you agitate an 
offensive subject, you intensify the injury, worry 
those who hear you, and can not possibly accom- 
plish anything good. Everything good or agree- 
able draws others to us. The politician, canvasser, 
and man of business recognizes this, unconsciously. 
The first thing he speaks of (notwithstanding 
he is there for business) is your pretty baby, the 
beautiful hair and eyes your little girl has, or what 
a bright little boy you have. That man always gets 
a hearing, whether you buy or not. Everything 
that is agreeable to the ear is conducive to health. 
Everything disagreeable produces ill health. We 
are sure to contract from anything disagreeable, 
whether of feeling, smell, sight, taste, or hearing. 
The amount of injury is governed by the intensity 
of the displeasure incurred, of its duration, and the 
susceptibility of our nature. We find some people 
who seemingly never tire of talking of an affront, 



192 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

nor of brooding over a thing that has happened. 
We find others who will derive pleasure for years 
from some kind word spoken or act done them. If 
you would have health or long life, commit to 
memory and practice the first four lines of the 
poem in the beginning of this book, u Seek the 
Good in Every Thing." 

We have a bird that rises with the sun, soars 
high in the air, and sees the beauties of God's cre- 
ation, the flowers, the dewdrop, the meadows and 
golden grain; and in its joy sings its praise to the 
Creator. We have another bird that rises high and 
soars over the rivers and valleys, and finds nothing 
worthy of its attention until he finds a dead mule 
or a putrid snake, when he proceeds at once to 
stir up a stink. Which of those birds, dear reader, 
will you imitate in your lives? They both live, but 
the love others have for them is incomparable. You 
are either following the lark or the buzzard. 

CONSTITUTION. 

We frequently hear the remark that such a per- 
son is of a weak constitution. This remark is 
usually considered sufficient reason for the person 
not being able to recover from an illness. Now, 
constitution, in speaking of human beings, only 
refers to the amount and quality of our bodies or 
make-up. Though we may have been reduced in 
body and thereby our constituent parts have been 
impaired, this is no evidence that the creative 
power lias been reduced. The fact is, our < sti- 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 193 

tution only represents what we have on hand, and 
not our power to produce more. When this system 
is left free for the action of this creative power or 
force, it begins to build at once, and just as fast in 
one person as another. True, it requires more time 
to build a physically exhausted body than one who 
is only slightly out of repair, as there is a greater 
amount of work to be done. The growing child 
requires more sleep than an adult, from the fact 
that sleep is building of the body, rest or repair; 
and the child must have the daily wear repaired 
and more body, or his young frame expanded to its 
full size. The reason some build up faster than 
others is they relax in mind and body; while the 
slow growth is indicative that the patient has not 
given up the idea that something must be done of 
man's invention, either to give them more blood, 
better blood, or tone up their system, and is re- 
tarding the work. In absent treatment the healer 
instructs his patient thus: "Now, if you could cure 
yourself you would have no need of my help; but 
you can't, so just quit trying and give your case 
entirely into my hands, and say 'if anything is to 
be done for me my healer must do it;' in other 
words, just make yourself limber in mind and 
body." 

This is perfect relaxation, and the reader will 
not wonder under this condition that some of the 
largest concerns have cured their hundreds of thou- 
sands of sufferers, in all parts of the world, and of 
every ailment that flesh is heir to. There is not a well 



194 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

settled county in the United States where their is 
not at least one who is known to have been cured 
in this way, and after medicines had failed. Then, 
with this knowledge of the great and unerring 
power that is in your body, that has once built 
your body entire, that has kept it in repair, why 
should you allow yourself to be discouraged be- 
cause of the bad condition it is in, the length of 
time you have been sick, or your old age? The best 
patient I ever had was a lady seventy -four yeara 
old, who had no constitution (but a constitutional 
worrying). Her husband stated they had spent 
twenty-five thousand dollars in search of health for 
her, in medicine, professional services, baths, health 
resorts, and climate, and he added: "We have 
spent so much, and tried everything else, until she 
is ashamed for her friends to know that she is 
going to try magnetic treatment." I went to her 
home and found her a physical wreck, only a 
shadow of her former self ; coughing and spitting 
her life away, until no one could sleep about her. 
She had been afflicted for years with humid asthma; 
could not eat, her digestion had failed entirely, no 
strength or nerve, rheumatic pains in joints, limits 
below the knees badly swollen and doughy (dropsy ). 
feet always cold, pains in back, chills running down 
her back, and withall very despondent. 

This was certainly a dark picture for a healer, 
but as everything has a bright side for those who 
look for it, I found no exception in this case. The 
lady had a good Christian mind in one sense; she 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 195 

looked upon everybody as honest until she found 
the reverse. Her whole life had been to better 
other's condition and render others happy. She 
had no fears of death, but desired to live longer. I 
tolcl her very frankly of the power she possessed, 
and the means by which we could bring about com- 
plete restoration. She was possessed with more 
than the usual amount of common sense, and 
accepted the conditions. In twenty-one treatments 
I dismissed the patient, as well. She had a new 
lease on life; was fleshy in a short time, had no 
pain nor disease, and was one of the happiest and 
active old ladies in the city. All was brought about 
by relaxation: just letting herself and her maladies 
alone. 

Now, if this poor sufferer can be cured, anyone 
else can; and if thousands have completely relaxed 
themselves when they were suffering torture, with 
the idea that the mind of a healer, though many 
miles away, would enter their system and drive 
out their disease, why, reader, can not you relax 
and let the power you know has built you and kept 
you in repair have one more chance to rebuild you? 
You can ! 

KEEP SWEET. 

There is a little sentence 
That is worth its weight in gold — 
Easy to remember, easy to be told; 
ChaDging into blessings 

Every curse we meet, 
Turnirjg hell to heaven, 

This is all: "keep sweet." 



196 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

THIS MAY BE YOUR CONDITION. 

A lady patient whom I was treating had a 
responsible position in a business house. She was 
a nervous wreck from female troubles, and unable 
to hold her position. I had no difficulty in pro- 
ducing relaxation in the affected parts, and relieved 
her of all pain and soreness; but the cause of her 
trouble remained. She constantly indulged in a 
nervous worry that prevented any accumulation of 
flesh or strength, both of which she was sadly lack- 
ing in. After repeated injunctions not to allow 
anything to worry her, she told me that her position 
in the business house was a very pleasant one, yet 
there were many perplexing things to meet every 
day, but that the worst of her trouble consisted in 
home worry. Said she: "All of our family are 
constantly worrying; when I try to quiet my nerves, 
I am surrounded by all their troubles. I am com- 
pelled to go to bed in this condition, and while I 
sleep fair, my mind seems so tired and weary in the 
morning that I am not fit for business." She spoke 
of boarding until she had recovered her strength. 
I said: "You quiet your nerves at home, and let 
the others worry." "But I have tried, and can not 
do it," said she. I told her she need not expect 
to change a habit in one day that she had been 
forming for ten years; do as the Irishman said, "if 
you can't be quiet, be as quiet as you can." Be 
patient and persistent. Each day's effort makes 
you able to do more the next day. In one month 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 197 

the lady had gained in flesh and strength to the 
surprise of all her friends. All spring and summer 
she improved in flesh, nerve, and patience as well, 
and held her position. A few days ago she was 
telling me how well she felt and how pleasant her 
duties had been all summer. I asked her: "How 
are things at home?" "Oh," said she, "they are 
all right; the rest of the family seemed to notice 
my quiet, pleasant disposition (that I am indebted 
to you for), and they acted like me; and," she added, 
reflectively, "the things that I used to worry about 
don't effect me now, and I guess most of the worry 
was in me." 

Never carry your business worry home nor your 
domestic worry to your business. If you really 
have trouble, do not get anyone to help you worry; 
one worry gives each one that worries just as much 
worry as if one attended to it, and the assistance 
has not improved the conditions of the other. But 
do not understand that you are to sit down and 
worry it out, or sweat it out. Dry worry is the 
w r orst of worry. Just set your mind on something 
pleasant or profitable and the worry is gone. I 
take the position that there really is no such thing 
as a cure; and I defy anyone to successfully contra- 
dict it. 

If you use your mind for pleasant thoughts, you 
have not cured it of worry, but have only pre- 
vented it from worry. If you relax your system 
from strain in any part, you only present the 
obstruction, and nature goes on unimpeded. If 



198 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

you cause pain to cease, you only allow the natural 
condition to maintain. All we do or can do is 
only a preventative. 

We were created on a wonderful basis, too com- 
plex for us to fathom; and yet we try to engineer 
this complex machine, when everything in life 
tells us we can not, and our knowledge of every- 
day experience shows us that it will run just right 
if allowed to do so. You need not try to stop wor- 
rying, you need not try to stop thinking, for you 
can not do it. Just let your mind have good 
thoughts, which may be found on every hand, in 
every thing, if we will only look for them with a 
desire to find them. When the surgeon said to the 
Irishman who had had the end of his nose shot off: 
"Pat, if it had been an inch closer it would have 
killed you." Pat said: "Bejabers, if it had been 
a half inch further off it would have missed me." 
The surgeon was looking for evil, while Pat was 
looking for good; and really had one hundred per 
cent, in his favor, as it would have taken an inch 
one way to have killed him, while a half inch the 
other way would have missed him entirely. 

RELAXATION AND CONTRACTION OF THE 
BO.VELS. 

In the practice of medicine we use laxatives 
and astringents. When the bowels are constipated, 
we give a laxative. Lax means to relax; to make 
loose; slack; not tightly stretched; and is derived 
from the Latin laxatious, meaning to relax: to 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 1 99 

loosen. Here we see that in constipation we recog- 
nize a contraction, and not a something we must 
get out of us. True, we must rid us of material 
that we have on hand and are unable to appro- 
priate, as the contracted condition of the organs 
have unfitted them to prepare the contents of the 
stomach for use in our construction. And it may 
be the thing we have eaten was the first cause of 
the contraction, but is more probable the thought 
that it would injure us, or the knowledge of having 
suffered, before, after eating the same kind, was the 
cause of the contraction. Yet we frequently, as 
has been shown, cause it by the excited or depressed 
condition of the mind when eating or during diges- 
tion. But the fact remains that we recognize a 
contraction in the system, and proceed to relax it. 
When the bowels are too loose or free of action, 
we give an astringent. Astringent is from the 
Latin word astringo, and, anatomically speaking, 
means "the act or power of binding or contracting 
any part of the bodily frame; it is opposed to relax- 
ation." This is what we recognize in the practice 
of medicine, regarding the correction of all the 
functions. We actually do those things by medi- 
cine and give relief; often, however, with very 
serious results to the system. For an instance: 
The contraction may be in the stomach, pyloris, 
duodenum, small intestines, caecum, ascending 
colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid 
flexure, or the rectum. Now, we will suppose that 
one of the last two named were contracted, which 



200 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

is very often the case. We give the stomach the 
laxative, and when it has absorbed all the poison it 
can take, the next organ takes all it can stand; and 
so on the organs in the order named take the laxa- 
tive; and though their condition was normal, they 
are entirely relaxed by being made sick; and by the 
time the medicine reaches the organ that was suf- 
fering from excessive contraction it has been so 
nearly used up that it often fails to relieve. 

If this was the extent of the damage we might 
yet be happy, but all the other organs, that were 
normal and needed no help, have been drugged, 
made sick, caused to relax; and they have dumped 
their contents (that were material for building our 
bodies) upon the already overloaded part where the 
contraction had suspended operation; and we have 
severe gripings, weak and sickening feelings, and 
this distress of body causes distress of mind, and 
might lead to serious diseases. We have no appe- 
tite, no energy, and no strength; the remedy has 
been worse than the disease. Then again, if there 
is any foundation for the theory for giving blood 
remedies (which I very much doubt), the blood will 
have absorbed some of the laxative, and must carry 
it to every part of the body and weaken every 
part of us. 

We admit the lacteals absorb some poison in 
taking up nourishment for building our bodies, but 
physiology teaches, and medical works all point to 
this fact, that no stimulant enters into the con- 
struction of our bodies; and, indeed, can not be 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 201 

found there, but is all fully accounted for in the 
wastes or found in the overworked condition of the 
excretory organs. Taking the two theories upon 
which we base the use of medicines, and they are 
not only useless in building our minds and bodies, 
but they entail an extra amount of labor on all the 
other organs to rid the system of them. Now, to 
give the medicine a chance to assert its usefulness, 
we will assume that the contraction is in the 
stomach. If the stomach did not use all the medi- 
cine in the first case cited, it will likely allow some 
to pass in this case. After the stomach has been 
relaxed, the medicine goes on and affects all the 
other organs just as it did in the other case. 

The reason some require more physic to relax 
them than others, is because their trouble is farther 
down the alimentary canal, and enough medicine 
must be taken to relax all the other organs, or 
rather enough must be taken to allow all the others 
to have all they can stand, and have enough to act 
upon the contraction when it finally reaches it. 
Where the contraction is in the stomach, it takes 
much less to act. This same condition prevails in 
all internal and many external remedies we take. 
And when we reverse the conditions, give an 
astringent, we find the same conditions confronting 
us. Most doctors will tell you that there is not a 
cough remedy that will not injure the stomach if 
taken into it. All kidney and liver remedies that 
do not contain aloes must be taken or used with 
physic (pills). In fact, many are accompanied with 



W2 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

pills, and all who have resorted to their use know 
of their constipating effects. This is caused by the 
fact that in order to reach the liver and kidneys 
(which are not digestive organs, strictly speaking, 
but excretory organs), the medicine contracts the 
organs of digestion and they must be relaxed by 
reversing the operation; and if the physic is not 
judicially administered, and too much be taken, it 
will pass on and entirely counteract the effects 
produced by the liver remedy. In liniments of pow- 
erful penetration, the entire system is reached, and 
this is done by sending it direct to the blood. The 
blood, in its round of purification, is cleansed of it 
as well as other impurities by the excretory organs, 
the chief of which is the kidneys. Many kinds, of 
high flavor, may be rubbed on externally, and in 
one. hour will be smelled on the urine. The liquid 
circulation, or the blood, is the vehicle upon which 
everything which the system needs must navigate; 
and also every thing taken by it must be carried to 
the capillaries, liver, kidneys, and lungs, to be cast 
off if unfit for use, or that has been worn out. 

Many of the medicines given are what we term 
suggestive, or as called by the medical profession, 
"suggestive therapeutics.'' We give the patient 
any thing not injurious, with the suggestion, "this 
will correct your bowels" (or whatever we wish to 
accomplish), and as I heard three good physicians 
testify in a Missouri court, where they were called 
as experts, say that it never failed to act according 
to the impression left upon the mind of the patient. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 203 

Doctors all know that the bread pill does not have 
the weakening effect that a medicine has that 
forces an action, or that would be termed "abor- 
tive." In case of laxatives, where the trouble is 
far along the alimentary canal, the contents of 
the stomach are dumped upon the other organs 
that are intended to hold the food for a purpose, 
and they in turn upon the next; and this quantity 
is all forced upon the organ that is contracted and 
already gorged, as soon as the medicine is or can 
be there. This is the cause of the violent disturb- 
ances we feel, until the medicine relieves the con- 
traction; then the weakness is the result of the 
strain. Under the suggestive remedy, the doctor 
tells the patient what it will do. The mind accepts 
it, or rather fully believes and expects it, and the 
subjective mind acts on the impression and relaxes; 
not all the organs, but in the place where the con- 
traction is excessive. 

Upon relaxation by the mind: The obstruction 
passes off easily or naturally and without pain, and 
there is no weakening effects from it. But the best 
part is that nature acted, and is more liable to act 
again, and not wait for the help. Dr. George Pitzer, 
one of the best authorities in the west, president of 
the American Medical College since 1873, says "sug- 
gestion is worth all the other remedies combined," 
and cites hundreds of cures he has performed by 
suggestion, of every name and type of disease. 

If this be the case, why not use any and 
every means to relax the injured parts that can 



204 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

accomplish it without injury, and do it readily? 
The best of these is, just quit running things, and 
let the involuntary forces run it themselves; quit 
thinking of yourself, quit taking anything, and do 
not fear but know that everything will be run just 
right. 

Following up the foregoing, I wish to impress 
the reader with the fact that there is but one con- 
dition of mind in which we can entirely surrender 
the supervision of this physical body to the power 
that can run it with unerring accuracy. When we 
are basking in the sunshine of hope or desire, 
everything is good, and we can safely look over 
a sea of what would trouble others, and not see an 
objectionable thing. In this condition we are never 
looking back for past pleasures, for they are dead; 
nor to the future to build castles, for we can not 
know what it contains. But we are living on the 
now. The good of the present we know; and the 
things we fancied would be horrible to endure, we 
find when we meet them, like ghosts, better when 
we get acquainted with them. Hence with a 
pleasant eye for our surroundings, we are free from 
fear and its attributes; the body is left to the nat- 
ural action of the creative power. How about the 
other picture? We will try to use its best side 
first. We do not wish to Ionic upon evil, and we 
turn to the things we once enjoyed. Behold, they 
are dead, past and gone. The thought leaves a scar. 
We turn to the future. Many bright things loom 
up in the distance, that offer a fay of light: hut 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 205 

alas ! before we can comprehend them they are 
enveloped in doubt; then fear takes hold of us, and 
a thousand obstacles are presented, and we utterly 
fail to find a single pleasure. We are forced to the 
now for every enjoyment, and led on to more 
blessings by hope and desire. He who refuses, or 
neglects to make the fullest use of the present, or 
does not enjoy the now, has forever lost it. Yester- 
day is past; tomorrow never comes. For those who 
desire to help others, and implant this good nature 
in others, never rub the wrong way on the cat's 
back, if you wish to win her. Like begets like. 
Tou can not by scolding, driving, nor commanding, 
cause anyone to relax in mind or body. By gentle, 
kind, agreeable, sympathetic ways only, can you 
reach that pure mind. It never reasons; never 
says: "Well, if he does not talk in the pleasantest 
tone, or is just a trifle rough, he means it well, and 
for my benefit." No, it never reasons either way; 
it only acts on what is presented to it by the 
senses; and always acts in accordance with the 
manner we present it. 

You must use good to produce good. Christ 
asked, "Do men gather figs from thistles?" If 
your intention is to do good, do not allow it to be 
•destroyed by the fear someone will think you are 
reforming your habits. 

Do good for the sake of doing right and you 
have your reward and will also be strengthened 
for purposes of good in the future. 

While speaking of doing good, my mind reverts 



206 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

to whab I have repeatedly noticed in this city 
(Hannibal). There is an old gentleman and lady, 
well known, and old residents here. They are very 
wealthy, have a great deal of company, and their 
time is taken up by entertaining them. While the 
wealthy are to be seen among their guests, the very 
poorest is also pleasantly entertained. All children 
are welcome, and pleased by their attention, though 
their ages averages about four score years. I am 
told they have given largely to charity wherever it 
was needed, and know of many charitable acts of 
my own observation. With all this and their church 
work, this good old couple find time to go to the 
factories of Hannibal and visit the working girls 
who are there for to support a widowed mother, or 
some dependent one, or their own support. They 
talk to those girls pleasantly (distribute no tracts), 
and say: "You girls are the most independent 
girls in the city; you have your own money, and 
are as well respected as the best, and I am glad to 
hear you are all nice girls." This and many other 
encouraging words are the object of their visits there. 
Who will not say that a few such visits among 
the thousand working girls by the wealthy would 
redound to the glory of God more than one million 
dollars sent to convert the heathen ? And yet we 
have a class of persons w T ho imagine they are 
wealthy, and. try hard to make others believe the 
same, that would not allow themselves to speak to 
one of these working girls, and in speaking of them 
they are referred to as a low class of morality. 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 207 

INDEPENDENCE. 

In speaking of Independence, I was attracted to 
the phrase. Our orators often speak of the declara- 
tion of independence, and then, after lauding that 
document to the skies, they bewail our situation of 
dependence. We are told, we must depend upon 
one party and another party; that all depends upon 
this man at the head, or that man for governor. 
That we are ruined if this policy is endorsed; that 
the trusts will eat us up; that capital will ruin 
labor; and all the unscrupulous lies that can be 
thought of. The fact that our government is the 
best in the world, is founded upon our absolute in- 
dependence. The majority of our citizens are 
independent. They have the courage to talk right, 
vote right, and change their opinions regardless of 
the opinions of the party they have been affiliating 
with, or the dirty flings they may hurl after them. 
Labor has fifty votes to capital one, and if there is 
any danger of being injured, they will speedily 
remedy the difficulty. If the trusts are grinding 
too hard, there is enough independent men who 
have as much sense as the average calamity howler 
who will cast their votes as the balance of power 
to stamp them out. Encourage independence in 
the youth; it is the foundation of the Republic. It 
holds in check every form of evil, and makes free 
men and women. 



20S THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

KELIGION. 

It is not the intention of this book to attempt to 
reform anybody's religious belief, nor to teach any 
new ideas of Christianity. We, however, believe 
that everybody's religion is admitted to be their 
best side and is probably the result of the teachings 
of the instinct or subconscious mind. There is a 
very close resemblance in all the religions of the 
world, whether we be worshipers of (iod, Moham- 
med, Buddha, or Confucius. Our religion is only 
our better part. Where we differ most is in the 
emblems of our religion, or the signs by which we 
indicate to the being we worship our seriousness or 
our devotion; and often those emblems are for 
others to see. Be that as it may, one religion 
stands in prayer, one sits, one kneels down, while 
others fall prostrate upon their faces. Some wor- 
ship direct the being of their devotion, others wor- 
ship through agencies or "middle men." Some 
confine their faith to sprinkling, others prefer 
emersion. Some by faith expect to reach the goal, 
while others strive to show it by their works. And 
thus the Hindoo mother sacrifices the babe of her 
bosom to the huge crocodile, as an indication of her 
sincerity; while others punish themselves, fast, and 
endure needless suffering to satisfy the object of 
their adoration. When the wife throws herself 
upon the funeral pyle and is burned with her dead 
husband to satisfy the god she adores, we must 
admit her sincerity. After stripping all religions 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 209 

of their emblems and doxies, we must conclude 
them all for the bettering of mankind in this world; 
and what is good for this world is good for eternity. 

THE EFFECTS OF OUR THOUGHTS UPON OUR 
BODIES. 

The old French medical commission appointed to 
investigate the Mesmer method of healing disease 
says: ''The imagination renews or suspends the 
animal functions; it animates by hope or freezes by 
fear; in a single night it turns the hair white; in a 
moment it restores the use of our limbs, or restores 
our speech; it destroys or develops the germs of dis- 
ease; it even causes death.' 1 Prof. Elmer Gates 
demonstrates that depressing emotions are life 
destroying, and cause the loss of energy and tissue; 
while happy emotions give both strength and tissue. 
He shows that the analysis of the secretions and 
excretions from one that has been angry for half 
an hour, shows certain ptomains and catastates of 
a poisonous character; that these poisons differ in 
one who has been sad, and other moods; and so on 
with every evil emotiou. The iracible, the depress- 
ing, the malignant, and fearful emotions, if intense, 
create poison in every cell of the body; while the 
good emotions augment the nutritive changes in 
every cell of the body. This produces health. 

The authorities quoted are the best known to 
the medical profession, and fully settles the fact 
that we must, if we would have healthy bodies, 
keep our minds in a good line of thought. Hun- 



210 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

dreds of pages might be written to prove this, from 
the experience of the best and most honest physi- 
cians, and would then not show half the wonders of 
the mind. Diseases and death are caused by the 
hundred, and cures performed every hour on this 
principle; and yet we have some doctors among as 
who will sueeringly remark to the patient who 
alludes to them: "Yes, there are some with weak 
imaginations that are made believe they have been 
cured." Now, if healthy women fall in a dead 
faint, if a full head of hair is turned white in a 
single night, if a birth mark is registered on an 
unborn babe, if the thoughts of a fly or other objec- 
tionable things in our food makes us sick, it 
ive therapeutics never fails to act. if corpulency is 
reduced, if frail bodies are made strong ami fleshy, 
if a lady's breasts when entirely gone have been 
restored, if the lame are made to walk, the weak 
and almost blind eye to see, if tumors are expelled, 
if pains and aches are relieved, if goitres and wens 
are removed, if crooked limbs have been made 
straight, and stiff and useless joints limber, if milk 
leg has been cured, if sick headache of thirty years 
standing has been cured, fevers reduced, coughs, 
colds, and swellings entirely expelled, and utmost 
every ailment eliminated from the human body, 
and the mind relieved of various hallucinations, 
and the worst of all xliseases — worry — dispelled by 
imagination; then the fact remains: that mind 
controls, builds, and tears down the body: and the 
sensible person, instead of following the errors of 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 211 

the past, will prove for themselves the truths laid 
down in this book. Whoever will lay aside preju- 
dice, and in the interest of truth use enough faith 
to test the rules herein laid down, will surely have 
knowledge that will be both pleasant and profit- 
able. 

DO AS YOU WOULD DO OTHER THINGS YOU 
WISHED TO ACCOMPLISH. 

If you wished to remember a thing, woiilcl you 
try to think of something else ? 

If you desired to learn German, would you study 
Trench ? 

If you desired to travel east, would you start 
west ? 

If you desired to quit doing a thing, would you 
practice doing it ? 

If you wished to save your money, would you 
try to spend it ? 

If you would have your child learn good man- 
ners, would you teach him bad ? 

If you wished to retain a friend, would you do 
him an unfriendly act? 

Then why will you not use the kind of sugges- 
tions you wish to produce ? Why clo you persist in 
saying when your system is contracted that you 
<?an't keep your mind off your troubles, that you 
€an not relax, that you have been sick too long, 
that you are too old, that you are too weak ? and 
.any other adverse suggestion you may think of. If 
y^ou have mind enough to think of one thing you 



212 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

have of another; wills are not weak — but strong, 
and only need your consent and they will serve you 
in any capacity. All you need to do is to try it 
faithfully a few hours at most and you will feel its 
effects so plainly you will know you are on the 
right road, and will by this knowledge be enabled 
to persistently keep good thoughts in mind and 
eliminate the bad, and you will be completely re- 
stored. Try it! Do it! 

We favor a rigid education on these lines; teach 
it in our schools; bring it into our homes; let the 
mother fully understand its workings, and we will 
soon see them reform this world. The teacher, 
nurse, or parent, may by its use be a great factor 
in healing our diseases and molding our character. 
To leave this work to the minister and physician is 
rather a slow process, as they are in contact with 
us so little, while we are subject to the bad the rest 
of the time. Medical men are as a rule too- 
material, and are so accustomed to take something; 
besides, they are human, and like all the rest of 
humanity, do not like to turn about and condemn 
the very thing they have assured you is the only 
remedy; and if they should, they are condemned by 
the rest of the profession, and a good following of 
the laymen. This is an age of progression, and let 
us away with the antiquated blue-stocking idea; 
that we mast believe only that which someone else 
has put up and labelled "pure," and are not allowed 
to try a thing to prove it, even when we know there 
is no harm to come from it. A thing that is good 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 213 

in your religion is certainly not bad in your every- 
day life. 

Use everything that will prevent crime and 
bring health to your bodies. Christ attended to 
the restoration of our bodies first, and by so doing 
he placed us in position to live as Christians should. 
We earnestly contend that fathers and mothers 
should control their children without the use of 
the rod. Suggestion is the safest, pleasantest, and 
the only way. By it parents may raise up their 
children in the paths of virtue, truth and honesty; 
and should they ever depart, they may by sugges- 
tion be convinced and converted from the error.. 
It is a mistaken idea that children are naturally 
bad, or that we inlferit meanness. We do get it by 
contact, which is suggestion. You do not have to 
talk it, nor compel them to study a thing, to incor- 
porate it into the system, only skirmish a little in 
that line, and they have it in their nature (as we 
say). A few days ago I heard a child of three years 
talking to a caller. He very carelessly, but in a 
manner far above one of his years, used remarks 
he had heard about the visitor. The mother was 
shocked, and said: "You little skeezicks, where 
did you ever learn such things ? " The child had 
lived at home the three years of his life, and of 
course learned it there. The fact is, children are 
always good, and if by good suggestions they are 
fed, will not only remain good but grow better and 
their influence will spread out and bear fruit; and 
who may know of the good that will be recorded 



214 THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 

to your credit in that great clay, from the good sug- 
gestions to another. 

In healing the sick, in raising your children, or 
correcting vices in others, never grow anxious. 
Anxiety has foiled a great many good intentions: 
it is itself of the evil mind, and as the homeopaths 
say, "like begets like.' 7 The anxious expression, the 
anxious tone, or anxiety displayed, expresses doubt; 
and he that doubteth disbelieves. After all the does 
and don'ts we have pointed out, one would think 
this would be a very hard practice to follow. But 
it is not. There is a safety line that extends 
throughout the entire category, whether healing or 
preventing disease, whether leading others into 
good or redeeming them from the bad. This line is 
always within your grasp, and may always be dis- 
tinguished from all other lines. Here is a full and 
complete description of it, accompanied with a pho- 
tograph of it, that you may always recognize it: 
''Ad Natural" 

When you are straining yourself in voice or 
manner, you are not natural ; 

When you use bad suggestions, you are not nat- 
ural : 

When you practice anxiety in anything, you are 
not natural; 

When you try to make yourself believe you can 
not accomplish that you desire, you are not natural. 

In fact, when you hate any person or thing, you 
are unnatural, and the injury is stamped upon your 
life and is conveyed to others in the suggestions you 



THE INVOLUNTARY FORCES. 215 

send out unconsciously. Every thought that we 
allow to pass over this mind is affecting us men- 
tally and physically. If the thought be for good, it 
is animating, and nature is unobstructed in her 
work. But if the thought be for bad, we are domi- 
nated by the contraction obstructing nature, and 
we suffer loss. 

The effort we ask you to make is agreeable to 
all. It is what the Bible and all religions, as well 
as moral teachings, enjoin upon us; and you have 
lost nothing in the effort. The pleasant sunshine is 
preferable to the darkness of night; the cheerful 
person that makes all feel their happy influence, is 
preferred to the grumbling, fault-finding person; 
the good season is preferred to the bad ; and through 
life on every hand the good thoughts, words, and 
expressions, are preferred ; and promote life, health, 
pleasure and wealth; while the bad, the depressing, 
the despisable, make us all worse, or as we say "out 
of sorts," engender bad dispositions, which deposit 
poison throughout our system, that leads to death. 

Surely, the reader will determine to seek the 
good in every thing. And when the good results 
are summed up from those who try for a single 
week to prove the truthfulness of the assertions 
contained in this little volume, the writer will 
patiently and willingly abide by the verdict of its 
patrons. 

THE END. 



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